StartSSL is free?! Has anyone used them before? Are their certs widely accepted/trusted?
Yes, it's free and works.
SSL + CNAME + static files hosting on GAE: almost free
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Re: SSL + CNAME + static files hosting on GAE: almost free
#32Try s3 + cloudflare. You will have to pay for ssl but barring that s3 + cloudflare will let you host a naked domain for almost free. Suppose you want some cheap static publishing, set up a dev heroku instance (free) and have it publish to your s3 bucket.
One limitation to this setup is that CloudFlare only caches CSS, JS, and images. It won't cache HTML or other dynamic content by default. However, it IS possible to "trick" CloudFlare into caching this content, by abusing the way it looks at the file extension and headers returned from your servers. If you can find a way to serve all your markup as JSON / JSONP with a ".js" extension and proper caching headers, it wi…
You can add a page rule for your whole domain and set custom caching to "everything".
Re: SSL + CNAME + static files hosting on GAE: almost free
#33We have a bunch of sites that are almost entirely static, but have a php "contact us" email form. Right now they are some bloated PHP CMS thing, and I would really like to switch them over to being static. Does anyone know of a cheap service that provides a form to send email we could have our contact form POST to?
I have helped a friend who does small, static marketing sites. In addition to needing a server for only thing (forwarding contact forms), I've noticed that mail from the low-end shared hosting her clients generally choose is extremely unreliable. So I've wondered if there was a need a service exactly like this. However it seemed so basic I thought... nah. Is this a real pain point for enough people?
It is for me. I do mostly static sites for small business, and use embedded forms from jotform.com but would really prefer to be able simply to post the info to an external server which handles sending the email.
Re: SSL + CNAME + static files hosting on GAE: almost free
#34We have a bunch of sites that are almost entirely static, but have a php "contact us" email form. Right now they are some bloated PHP CMS thing, and I would really like to switch them over to being static. Does anyone know of a cheap service that provides a form to send email we could have our contact form POST to?
Uhm, do you know you can do a post to a mailto: action with your form contents? The browser will open your email client the same as a mailto link. http://www.w3schools.com/html/tryit.asp?filename=tryhtml_for...
I'd be really curious to A/B test mailto versus contact form, but my gut is that fewer people would use a mailto.
Re: SSL + CNAME + static files hosting on GAE: almost free
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think, yes, that the "CloudFlare-issued" means you have to use a CloudFlare subdomain... But again I did not test. Even if it works, it's still twice as expensive as GAE, doesn't seem to cache the HTML files (as per above comment)...
It is a cloudflare subdomain but it doesn't show that way in the URL, I dont know how that works though. Can anybody explain why this works? I dont have a naked domain with ssl with them but you can check this one out to see what it looks like https://www.luckybolt.com (also thats my brothers startup, if you are in SF, check it out). As you point out though, GAE is $10 / Mo. cheaper. I'll check that out for new proje…
They basically generate the SSL certificate for your domain for you. Their SSL CA partner (GlobalSign IIRC) is basically trusting them with it since they manage their certificate and the domain owner is trusting Cloudflare (this can also be checked in Whois). So you just activate SSL in the options and bam, your site works with SSL within a couple of minutes.
BTW: they use certificates with multiple SANs, so many different domains in the same certificate (and without SNI). This allows to terminate SSL on a single box for many different domains/customers. If you look at certificates details, you will see many unrelated domains in the SAN list.
Re: SSL + CNAME + static files hosting on GAE: almost free
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, their domain-verified certs are free. I've been using them for a while now and haven't had any problems. See this post for browser support: https://forum.startcom.org/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1802
Very nice, thanks. According to that page, Windows XP+, Mac OS 10.5+, iOS 2+, and Android 2.2+ are supported. I'll have to try them.
Note that these free certificates are considered non-commercial-use only.
"The "StartCom Certificate Policy & Practice Statements" document §3.1.2.1 is explicit that the Class 1 (free) certificates are for non-commercial uses only.[3] The previous version of the CPS did not include this restriction.[4]"
You can, however, pay $60 for a personal validation (and potentially an extra $60 for company validation) to use the certs commercially. Actually, this validation lets you generate any number of SSL certificates for sites you own, for two years. This also includes wildcard certs, which you pay through the nose for from everyone else.
These guys are so much cheaper than the rest of the SSL vendors it's not funny. I've got my wildcard StartSSL certificate up on codano.com, and I've generated a few more for internal use. The validation literally took about two hours from start to finish, and most of that was just waiting for an email response/validation phone call and me scanning my passport and business documentation.
Can't recommend them enough.
Re: SSL + CNAME + static files hosting on GAE: almost free
#37SNI is a curious choice for a 'Universal' widget, especially when GAE offers dedicated(?) IP addresses. Carriers are still selling Android 2.x phones which will give a certificate error with the widget, and IE on XP isn't exactly a small target. Although i guess it depends on your market.
EDIT: Wow, GAE charges $39/mo[1] for an IP? I know IPv4 is scarce, but i charge my customers $10/mo for SSL, and even that is a big markup on the $1/mo Linode charge me. I would honestly suggest going the VPS route to improve browser compatibility.
Re: SSL + CNAME + static files hosting on GAE: almost free
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
Very nice, thanks. According to that page, Windows XP+, Mac OS 10.5+, iOS 2+, and Android 2.2+ are supported. I'll have to try them.
Note that these free certificates are considered non-commercial-use only. "The "StartCom Certificate Policy & Practice Statements" document §3.1.2.1 is explicit that the Class 1 (free) certificates are for non-commercial uses only.[3] The previous version of the CPS did not include this restriction.[4]" You can, however, pay $60 for a personal validation (and potentially an extra $60 for company validation) to use th…
Is a wildcard cert for subdomains, e.g. https://*.example.com? And it's $60 altogether for any domain I control?
Good info. Thanks!
Re: SSL + CNAME + static files hosting on GAE: almost free
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
Note that these free certificates are considered non-commercial-use only. "The "StartCom Certificate Policy & Practice Statements" document §3.1.2.1 is explicit that the Class 1 (free) certificates are for non-commercial uses only.[3] The previous version of the CPS did not include this restriction.[4]" You can, however, pay $60 for a personal validation (and potentially an extra $60 for company validation) to use th…
Is a wildcard cert for subdomains, e.g. https://*.example.com ? And it's $60 altogether for any domain I control? Good info. Thanks!
Yep. And you can put multiple DNS entries on a single cert - check out my certificate on codano.com: it has "codano.com, "* .codano.com, "angrywizard.com" and "* .angrywizard.com", all on the same cert. The cert was free after paying $120 for personal/corporate verification.
Note that they will confirm that you are the owner of domains you try to request certs for.
Re: SSL + CNAME + static files hosting on GAE: almost free
#40We have a bunch of sites that are almost entirely static, but have a php "contact us" email form. Right now they are some bloated PHP CMS thing, and I would really like to switch them over to being static. Does anyone know of a cheap service that provides a form to send email we could have our contact form POST to?
So, this is not a service that sends email... but I sometimes use a Google Doc survey in that circumstance. There might be a way to get google doc to email you with the response every time someone submits one?