# Free SSL Can Lead to HUGE Headaches

**URL:** <https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/free-ssl-can-lead-to-huge-headaches/73645>\
**Category:** Help\
**Created:** [October 1, 2018, 5:32pm UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/free-ssl-can-lead-to-huge-headaches/73645 "2018-10-01T17:32:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 4

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**Author:** ![Osiris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/839c29/32.png) [@Osiris](https://community.letsencrypt.org/u/Osiris)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2018, 5:50pm UTC](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/free-ssl-can-lead-to-huge-headaches/73645/4 "2018-10-01T17:50:01Z")

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> [@Ion\_Saliu](#):
>
> In July of 2018, my web host, **[iPage.com](http://iPage.com)** , offered me free SSL via Let’s Encrypt. I accepted the “challenge” and I went through all that process. I succeeded in implementing SSL on my site **[saliu.com](http://saliu.com)** in a couple of hours.

So you needed to **manually** implement the challenge? There wasn't just a button to press in your control panel? Because most of the time, a hoster which implements Let's Encrypt does so by providing a plugin in their control panel to take care of _everything_. Unfortunately, there are a lot of hosters not implementing such an automated system. If your hoster is one of the latter, you should change hosting provider to one which _does_ provide automated implementation.

See the [Web Hosting who support Let’s Encrypt](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/web-hosting-who-support-lets-encrypt/6920) thread for more info.

> [@Ion\_Saliu](#):
>
> There were issues, however. Out of the blue, pages on my site were rendered “not safe” by browsers! The issue was: \*“The [saliu.com](http://saliu.com) site tries to steal the SSL certificate of _.bizland.com”_ . What?

That's not something Let's Encrypt can prevent nor does Let's Encrypts certificate **itself** cause such a thing. Only your hoster can is to blame.

> [@Ion\_Saliu](#):
>
> The worst happened on September 29, 2018. The browsers informed me that the free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate was valid from 7/1/2018 to 9/29/2018! What? Nobody informed me about an expiration date!

See [FAQ - Let's Encrypt](https://letsencrypt.org/docs/faq/#what-is-the-lifetime-for-let-s-encrypt-certificates-for-how-long-are-they-valid)

> **What is the lifetime for Let’s Encrypt certificates? For how long are they valid?**  
> Our certificates are valid for 90 days. You can read about why [here](https://letsencrypt.org/2015/11/09/why-90-days.html).
> 
> There is no way to adjust this, there are no exceptions. We recommend automatically renewing your certificates every 60 days.

> [@Ion\_Saliu](#):
>
> What’s going on, folks?

I guess you chose for a sub-optimal hosting provider. Unfortunately, this could be just the only thing they don't implement implement and you couldn't have known this before.

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_[View the full topic](https://community.letsencrypt.org/t/free-ssl-can-lead-to-huge-headaches/73645)._