question Is there a parking service that supports https?

[Dimitar Nestorov]

Google Chrome refuses to visit the new .app domains without https

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

Or transfer your .app to 1and1 for $12 (1 year will be added).
Google doesn't set 60 days lock, so only your registrar can reject this transfer (if their own policy).

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

Here is how to activate your SSL cert:
https://help.1and1.com/ssl-certific...certificate-for-hosting-packages-a600659.html

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

When ordering at 1and1 - select "Domain only", this is enough.
Hosting plan is necessary only if you really want to run your websites/scripts at 1and1 servers.

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

in order to redirect them to global parking services

If classic Google PPC monetization - forget about such redirects, this is prohibited by Google.
And was already discussed in this thread.

 

[domainer111]

I use DigitalOcean.com $5 per month, unlimited domains, unlimited SSLs. A few lines of code installs the SSL from LetsEncrypt. But then the site has to be configured.

I can see why this is impractical from a domain parking viewpoint.

I do park a few domains with @Donny and I'm not sure what's going to happen once the Chrome changes kick in.

 

[Michael M]

Check out this thread... I made a free "app" to create an SSL and forward your new app domains to a lander. Let me know if you need any landing services added that are supporting .app domains. (Sedo is not yet)


https://www.namepros.com/threads/free-app-ssl-forwarding-for-landers.1081373/

 

[domains21]

Maybe it would be worth looking into how Cloudflare does it with their Universal SSL ?

 

[Michael M]

@Donny - thanks. You make some great points. And yeah getting there.

@Michael M - very true indeed. The future definitely is in HTTPS. Actually, as with .app domains, even the present is now with HTTPS. So a solution is definitely required either sooner or later.

It won't hurt for us to look into it while taking all of Donny's great points into account.

Thanks for keeping an open mind...

Also, just a thought... Many hosting companies host 10s to 100s of thousands of websites with their own SSL cert without a problem. (though they generally charge the customer for the SSL cert)

It is just a new idea to the Domaining/Parking/Landing Service companies - but with SEO in mind at a minimum it is time for these companies to start working towards it.

 

[CamMK27]

Great info. Thanks.

 

[Dimitar Nestorov]

It reminds me when people were buying .tel domains to find out they couldn't park them

That was only back in the day? I'm currently reading do.tel's FAQ page and it says

If you do not wish to use the free Telhosting service, that is fine as you can use your .tel for any purpose of your choosing e.g. hosting your own website.

 

[Michael M]

LetsEncrypt will be hard to scale for thousands of domains.

It does not appear to have any scaling issues that I have noticed so far. I guess we will see if no services offer SSLs for .app and thousands sign up for my forwarding service. I personally am hoping they all figure it out so I don't have to deal with any scaling issues since it's free.

In fact, setting up SSL is not the problem, the problem is to gather the private certificates and automate the deployment.

...

Just need to automate the LetsEncrypt part. (emphasis added to your sentence)

.app is definitely going to be a challenge for domainers.

Challenges arise every day as technology evolves. But this is just a first indication of the need for all services to provide SSL to appease Google and new tech.

 

[Kate]

That was only back in the day?

Yes, now you can use your own name servers but until recently you couldn't. A domain name that can't be used for a website or other Internet service like E-mail is useless right. And now domainers are stuck with plenty of .app domains that they can't host readily.

Challenges arise every day as technology evolves. But this is just a first indication of the need for all services to provide SSL to appease Google and new tech.

Not saying it can't be done but tedious and challenging. Of course the easy way for a parking company or hosting company would be to become a certification authority, then you can roll out certificates easily and domain validation poses no problem.

My guess is, it's not worth the time and effort for parking companies. Not enough combined traffic, not enough sales. They have many other priorities.

 

[Michael M]

cPanel partnered with Comodo to release a feature called AutoSSL. Basically the same as LetsEncrypt but the issuer is Comodo. I used to have LetsEncrypt in my cPanel and then one day it disappeared.

I made a reverse IP lookup on my website and found 785 websites hosted on our IP address. Cool thing is that I tried a bunch of them by manually writing https in the address bar and they all resolved with

Which means that my hosting provider has SSL setup for 785 domains just on that server. If cPanel can do it, so can you!

I have a little over 100 SSLs/sites setup in the 1 day my .app forwarding website has been online. All automated and no issues. Interested to see if it keeps going smoothly as it scales - but I see no reason why it would not.

I think the big players will catch up soon.

 

[branding]

I used to have LetsEncrypt in my cPanel and then one day it disappeared.

Most hosts used a plugin for this but there were some minor issues if I recall correctly, then AutoSSL came around. Great solution as well. More important, certificates become freely available to the general public which means the web got just a tiny bit safer

I made a reverse IP lookup on my website and found 785 websites hosted on our IP address. Cool thing is that I tried a bunch of them by manually writing https in the address bar and they all resolved with

Which means that my hosting provider has SSL setup for 785 domains just on that server. If cPanel can do it, so can you!

785 is nothing really depends on the host ofcourse but I'm usually using at least 5 ips per node(although these are beast in terms of resources) so do your math.

Anyway, I'm kinda surprised the 'parking business' is this far behind whereas the overall hosting industry has adopted SSL pretty much as a standard nowadays.

When there's a will, there's a way. I'm sure they'll figure it out.

 

[Michael M]

Let me know when you can add four or five million.

I'll wait...

Donny

I totally understand the difference in scale. But hosting providers do manage to do this without issue.

I'm not trying to give you a hard time - but I would bet that in the next year or two you will have to do something about an SSL per domain to stay relevant. Big G has a lot of weight, not to mention forward progress.

 

[branding]

Let me know when you can add four or five million.

I'll wait...

Donny

It's doable I'd say. Look at cloudflare But seriously, I understand scaling things up doesn't always work.

Keep in mind though that you gotta get this done as in less than a few years everyone will be doing it.

 

[Michael M]

Cloudflare bought their own CA. This is why they can offer universal SSL. I think any parking company would offer ssl if it was possible and still profitable. Buying an SSL cert for every parked domain isn't a reality.

I would give you a Google lava lamp and two packs of bubble gum.

Donny

Agreed. If landing/parking companies had to buy an SSL cert for each domain they would go out of business.

Ideally the registrars need to fix their forwarding and all would be well. But if you want people to use your nameservers then some solution needs to be found.

 

[Michael M]

I would give you a Google lava lamp and two packs of bubble gum.

Hahaha! Just saw that!

Sorry someone outbid you with a google lava lamp, two packs of gum, and a zen garden via PM.

 

[Michael M]

Nameservers have nothing to do with SSL. It's all done on the webserver.

Donny

Agreed. But you wouldnt point your nameservers to my webservers during testing so I was going to throw those in as an added bonus.

 

[branding]

Cloudflare bought their own CA. This is why they can offer universal SSL. I think any parking company would offer ssl if it was possible and still profitable. Buying an SSL cert for every parked domain isn't a reality.

I would give you a Google lava lamp and two packs of bubble gum.

Donny

I'm not sure what you're using for dns right now but if you'd be willing to work with cloudflare you could use that advantage.

They're easy to integrate into any backend. You deliver the panel, they take care of the rest. Again, it might take a lot of rewriting of your current system but I think in the long run it's worth it.

 

[Michael M]

I'm not sure what you're using for dns right now but if you'd be willing to work with cloudflare you could use that advantage.

They're easy to integrate into any backend. You deliver the panel, they take care of the rest. Again, it might take a lot of rewriting of your current system but I think in the long run it's worth it.

I doubt that would work for them as cloudflare isnt going to want to issue them 5 millions SSLs for free. Their "universal SSL" isn't exactly universal. It is just offered to each customer per site from my understanding.

 

[branding]

I doubt that would work for them as cloudflare isnt going to want to issue them 5 millions SSLs for free. Their "universal SSL" isn't exactly universal. It is just offered to each customer per site from my understanding.

They're not a free option but affordable for what you get for sure. If you're a business in this day and age that shouldn't be an issue. Think of all the customers you're gonna lose in the future. I'd reach out to discuss with them.

 

[branding]

And their DNS option, is really just a redirection solution in a nutshell. And we can't work with redirection.

Donny

From what I know that might be the case. Not sure as I've been running my own DNS for ages.

Looking at this from a host's perspective cos in the end parking is just some sort of hosting and lots of them offer cloudflare integration.

Not suggesting I've got the solution, just trying to give some options I'd be looking into if I had the time to explore

 

[branding]

Possible future blocks of sites without SSL from browsers

^ this.

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

Over 99% of those .app domains are without any traffic, except bots.
I don't see any reasons to overload/downtime the parking servers due to these SSL games...
I think, regarding monetization (Google PPC) - this should be provided individually... per domains where traffic really exists... for example, $1/domain/mo for SSL cert service.