What is the simplest way to get this done? Even when I see posts which outline this, they all seem to assume a base level of competence that I haven’t yet achieved (telling me to type out code but not telling me where such code should be inputted).
If anyone could write me a step by step post (with screenshots, that’d be even better) about the easiest way to make this happen with Let’s Encrypt, I would really really appreciate it. I don’t even know where to run command lines yet, so the more help, the better. Sorry for being such a newb.
If you don’t know how to run command lines yet, how did you install a Discourse Forum site in the first place? Just so we can “measure” the level of knowledge
Further more, a few questions might come in handy, if you’d like to answer them as best as possible:
My web server is (include version):
The operating system my web server runs on is (include version):
My hosting provider, if applicable, is:
I can login to a root shell on my machine (yes or no, or I don’t know):
I’m using a control panel to manage my site (no, or provide the name and version of the control panel):
I didn't need to run any code. All custom code on my site is just hacky stuff I've found/manipulated from googling around. Everything else is pretty much out of the box forum software.
My web server is (include version):
Not sure. How can I check?
The operating system my web server runs on is (include version):
Not sure. How can I check?
My hosting provider, if applicable, is:
Discourse.
I can login to a root shell on my machine (yes or no, or I don’t know):
Not sure. How can I check?
I’m using a control panel to manage my site (no, or provide the name and version of the control panel):
If by control panel you mean a settings/dashboard I can access as an admin, yes. I don't see a name/version anywhere. It's just the standard stuff that comes with discourse.
(Yea, I know these answers are terrible. Sorry I can't "help you help me me" more )
I'm not really sure if that's correct. Most of the time, with hosting provider is meant the company that's running the server computers on which your site/forum is running. And you're paying money to them to do so. Discourse is a software package, which itself is 100 % open source and free. Everyone can download Discourse and install it. And third party hosting providers can offer customers Discourse, but it wouldn't literally be hosted by Discourse itself.
Now, Discourse does offer hosting packages, see: https://payments.discourse.org/pricing
So I'm wondering to which company you're paying the bill so they can offer the Discourse forum to you.
In this configuration, as far as I know, you can’t use or enable a certificate at all unless it’s provided by Discourse. So you should contact the support for help.
Not every hosting configuration allows using a Let’s Encrypt certificate. We’ve had a number of people on this forum using styles of hosting where they aren’t given enough control over the environment to install a certificate without the hosting provider’s help, and where the hosting provider hasn’t chosen to give them the option to use a third-party certificate at all.
By the way, the command-line approaches are normally used on Unix-based servers (which today are almost always running Linux, although a handful of them are running on other kinds of servers). Many of these require administrative (root) access on the server, which is something that not all hosting providers offer either, even if they are using a Unix environment and allow command-line access.
To run commands on the server, you use an SSH application to log in to it.
Traditionally on a Linux or macOS desktop, you open a terminal application (to access the command line of your own desktop computer) and then type ssh username@server.example.com. Then you will access the server’s command line and commands you type will be sent to the server instead of your own computer.
Windows users have most often used an SSH client called PuTTY (https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/), which provides the terminal emulation as well as the SSH protocol support in one single application. However, there are other options as well. I understand that Microsoft is now including an official SSH application by default in the newest versions of Windows, but I haven’t used Windows in many years so I’m not very familiar with the status of that or how to use it!
I think the Unix command line is super-great but the documentation that relates to using it to get a Let’s Encrypt certificate or to install one on a server probably simply doesn’t apply to your current hosting situation at all, because you probably don’t have shell-level access to the servers!
SSL add-on
For an additional $20/month, your site can be served over a secure HTTPS connection, and increase your plan limits:
Staff users 5 → 10
Page views 100k → 150k
Storage 10gb → 15gb
I guess they won't offer you a free Let's Encrypt certificate, as they would loose income doing so. But you can always ask!
)