Using SSL within Joomla

Joomla Force SSL is an option to activate the SSL Certificate on your Joomla website.

SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer, it is a security protocol that encrypts private data before it is transmitted from / within your Joomla site. Verbindingen met de website zullen plaatsvinden via het beveiligde https-protocol in plaats van de standaard http-voorvoegsel.

If you own an e-commerce or business website, an SSL Certificate is almost a must to protect (customer) data.

You have a choice of 4 different certificates

• Standard SSL Certificate - is only issued for one domain name and does not cover subdomains. NOTE: www.website.nl and website.nl (without www.) are considered two different domain names.
• Wildcard SSL Certificate - is issued for one domain name and all its subdomains. If you want to protect both www.website.nl and store.website.co.uk, this is the right option.
• Extended Validation SSL Certificate - is the most expensive type of certificate. For this type of validation, the company details are checked using a public register, such as the Chamber of Commerce's trade register. As a result, the company details are displayed in the certificate details, and the green lock and trade name are shown in the address bar. This creates more trust and, as a result, can also be more favorable for sales.
• Let's Encrypt Certificate - Let's Encrypt is a great initiative by some major parties such as Microsoft and Google to ensure that anyone can get a free SSL certificate for their website The level of encryption is exactly the same as with the paid options above. Find out if your hosting party supports this form of encryption.

Before you begin:

To enable SSL for your Joomla site, you need:

• An SSL Certificate, successfully installed on the server. This can be obtained through your hosting party or through https://www.sslcertificaten.nl/
• A dedicated IP address, which is unique for an SSL Certificate. Please contact your hosting party for this.

Enable SSL on your Joomla website:

Enable Force SSL on your Joomla site

Login to the backend and go to System >> Global Configuration

In the tab named server  zijn 3 Forceer SSL options you can select:

None: SSL is not enabled in your Joomla site.
Administrator only: connections to the administrator are redirected to HTTPS.
Entire site: connections across the entire site are redirected to HTTPS.

Select Entire website and click save.

Let's take a look at the website

If you have problems with the SSL Certificate, use the SSL Certificate Tools

Check if the settings for plugins, which are used for Paypal payments for example, also need to be adjusted!