Difference between txt record and .well-known folder

[Mendistern]

Hey,
I am using plesk + windows + nodejs for my website.
till now when i installed letsencrypt, it created a .well-known folder.
after i had a lot of problems with my web.config rewrite module, i found a way that if i disable asp i can i can renew my certificate and it’ll work, but when i renewed the cert with asp disabled he didn’t create a folder but added a TXT record.
what’s the difference?
and will i have further problems in the next cert renewal?
also, is it a good idea to disable asp?

[JuergenAuer]

Hi @Mendistern

@Mendistern

but when i renewed the cert with asp disabled he didn’t create a folder but added a TXT record.
what’s the difference?

start with some basics:

How It Works - Let's Encrypt

Then learn something about different challenge types:

Challenge Types - Let's Encrypt

http-01 checks a file in /.well-known/acme-challenge, dns-01 checks a DNS TXT entry.

is it a good idea to disable asp?

If you don't use ASP, you can disable it.

[Mendistern]

So this means that if i use a TXT record the certificate doesn’t even look at my web.config?

[schoen]

The validation method using a DNS TXT record never makes any inbound connection to your server at all (in fact, you don’t even need to have a server running on the Internet to use it).