Tuesday 11 September 2018

HTTPS

Now that Google puts "not secure" against http:// web-sites there is an incentive to move to https.  I thought it might require significant technical work or money but it turned out to be quite simple and free.
Firstly you need a web server.  In my case this was an RPI running lighttpd and accessible on t'internet via port forwarding.
Secondly you need a certificate.  These can cost money by letsencrypt provides free certificates which are suitable.
You need certain application software on RPI, I am using Raspbian Stretch which has all the necessary pre-requisites so I just needed to install certbot.
Now you just need to retrieve the certificate from letsencrypt.com using certbot and configure lighttpd and your firewall to use port 443.
https URLs now work which means you no longer have to look at "not secure" messages.
Altogether a very pleasant experience :)

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