Help Getting Started-So confused where to start!

I'm very lost, please don't laugh as I read through all the Get Started info and it looks like gibberish to me mostly. Maybe my site is not one where Let's Encrypt will be possible because it looks like it's going to be way too complicated for me. Is there a step by step guide somewhere? I don't even know what the questions below are asking. :frowning:

Please fill out the fields below so we can help you better. Note: you must provide your domain name to get help. Domain names for issued certificates are all made public in Certificate Transparency logs (e.g. https://crt.sh/?q=example.com), so withholding your domain name here does not increase secrecy, but only makes it harder for us to provide help.

My domain is: midwestnomads.com

I ran this command: I'm lost

It produced this output: More lost

My web server is (include version): No clue

The operating system my web server runs on is (include version): Don't know

My hosting provider, if applicable, is: Tech Surgeons (The do not provide SSL certificates or technical set up of a provided SSL without an annual/additional cost)

I can login to a root shell on my machine (yes or no, or I don't know): Don't Know

I'm using a control panel to manage my site (no, or provide the name and version of the control panel): Is this like Word Press? That is what I use, a Word Press.org account if that is what this is asking

The version of my client is (e.g. output of certbot --version or certbot-auto --version if you're using Certbot):

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Welcome to the Let's Encrypt Community :slightly_smiling_face:

I'm laughing... :rofl: but only because your honesty is so great! :slightly_smiling_face: You're not alone. It can be very confusing. Rest assured that we will help you through this though without judgment.

Let me gather a bit of information. Back in a few minutes...

To other helpers:

Please be gentle here and keep the geekdom to a dull squeak.

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So you're using Apache as your webserver software.

http://www.midwestnomads.com redirects (301 Moved Permanently) to http://midwestnomads.com/

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We can likely get you Let's Encrypt certificates for free. :slightly_smiling_face:

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There has never been a TLS/SSL certificate issued for midwestnomads.com, which was expected.

When such a certificate is issued, you can find it here:

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At present your website is currently serving a TechSurgeons wildcard certificate (intended for subdomains of techsurgeons.com like subdomain.techsurgeons.com). On top of that, it's a Let's Encrypt certificate. :grin:

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What hosting plan do you have with TechSurgeons?

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:laughing:

Who are they kidding? We've helped multitudes of people with practically no webserver experience install SSL certificates. I'm assuming you don't have root access to your hosting?

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Do you have SSH (aka command line or terminal) access to your hosting?

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I don't think so. My husband picked them out 4 years ago and I know very little about the hosting service or if it's the best one. We pay $85/yr.

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Do you use some type of control panel webpage (like cPanel) to configure things?

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I'm rather wondering about what TechSurgeons offers for what price...

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I'm not sure what you are asking sorry. I have nothing to log into on their server/web hosting.

We don't do anything except what we manage on WordPress. They do all the other stuff and they have been great and quick at responding over other issues like when I made a mistake coding and made my whole site go down.

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I hope they're quite responsive and friendly. You are certainly paying for that.

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So you probably just go to midwestnomads.com/admin to login, correct?

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Yes, I just log in through wordpress

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I would highly recommend that for the price. You do actually own midwestnomads.com though, right? As in, you registered it yourself and not TechSurgeons?

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By the way, your domain registrar is GoDaddy:

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Wonder who the actual registrant is for the domain name? :thinking: Previously this was easy to determine. Ever since the Euro privacy laws changed this has become more difficult.

Never mind.

It's TechSurgeons LLC.

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My personal advice:

  1. Create your own GoDaddy account for free
  2. Call GoDaddy at (480) 463-8390
  3. Explain to them that you own midwestnomads.com and have been hosting with TechSurgeons
  4. Tell them that TechSurgeons seems to have registered the domain name in their own name instead of in your name
  5. See if they can arrange transferring the domain name into your GoDaddy account

This will likely require proof and create some discussion. You might need to look into the terms from TechSurgeons to see what you're up against. Without having ownership/control over your domain name, your options may be severely limited.


You could instead see if GoDaddy can change the registrant information, particularly the email address, to you. TechSurgeons might agree to this directly. It would at least give you ownership of the domain name without you needing to have the domain name transferred to your own account (and allow you to do so later if you desire).

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