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Due to a changing technology landscape in both techical details and costs, we, at FASO, have recently changed our position on SSL certificates for artist websites and now think most artists should start planning to add an SSL certificate to their artist website.

We explain why we feel that way in this article.

We are starting to roll out SSL support for our Platinum customers, and plan to roll-out to Gold plan customers after we have finished the Platinum plan roll out.

If you are a FASO customer and are interested in adding SSL support to your website, this page explains the site requirements and process.

Requirements to Enable SSL on a FASO website

1.  Your FASO membership must be a Platinum membership

2.  You must be hosting your site on your own domain name

3.  If you have more than one domain, you must select a primary or main domain.  

     Your primary domain is the one we will obtain the SSL certificate for.

4.  Your domain must be administered by FASO

     This means you must have registered your domain through FASO or transferred your domain to FASO.

5.  You must be using one of the FASO "Generation 3" templates (These are the templates that are SSL tested):

      * Slate Orange

      * Slate Custom

      * Evoke

      * Gotham

      * Merriweather

      * Mirabello

      * Morphic Mapelicious 

      * Cosmic Chameleon

      * Striking Studio

      * Elevated Coral

      * Elevated Custom

      * Modern Momentum

      * Eurostyle

      * Seattle Sleekness

      * Luminous Links

      * Artfully Avant

      * Ensō

      * Williamsburg

      * Chelsea

      * Sierra

6.  You must verify any third party code you have installed on your site

If you are loading any 3rd party widgets or code (like a daily paintworks widget), you must make sure you load it over https (and not http).  After the switch to SSL, visitors' browsers may block any 3rd party widgets or code that isn't loaded securely, or alternatively, the page will load but without the green lock.  You will need to check with the 3rd party (if you load any such widgets) to ensure they support https. [1]

7. You must be OK with the fact that Windows XP users will not be able to load your SSL site

Windows XP is no longer supported by Microsoft and usage for most web traffic has fallen into the 1-2% range (and is falling daily). Being an older, unsupported OS means that Windows XP can not display sites that use modern SSL technology. If this is a concern to you or you know you have many customers who still use Windows XP, we recommend you wait. Fewer users use Windows XP every single day, so waiting to revisit the SSL issue in a few months is perfectly OK.

How to Enable SSL on a FASO website

If your site meets the above requirements (or you change your site so that it does meet the above requirements), here's how you enable SSL support for your FASO website.

1.  Login to your FASO Account

2.  Click the settings (gear icon) in the upper right

3.  Click "Account Settings"

4.  Click "Labs"

5.  Click "SSL"

6.  Verify the domain we are using

      This screen shows you the domain we will enable SSL for.  Make sure it is the domain you want to use.  If it is, go to step 7.

7.  Click the button that reads "Request  SSL"

     [if your site doesn't meet the eligibility requirements, there will be a message explaining what the problem is and what to do]

That's it!  Once you click that button, there's nothing else for you to do.  We'll take care of getting and installing the SSL certificate.  It can take us up to 5 days to do the whole process although it usually only takes a day or two.

Sincerely,

Clint Watson

Software Craftsman and Art Fanatic

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[1] Updating 3rd party widgets is not strictly necessary to enable SSL, and you can proceed without changing them if you are OK with the caveat of possibly losing the green lock icon in the address bar and/or some widgets possibly being blocked.