[LINK] Support Desk Fail

[Karl Auer]

On Sat, 2018-06-16 at 13:18 +1000, Robert Hazeltine wrote:
> I approached the Support Desk of a well known, Australian IT company
> which was founded in 1996 for support with a broken SSL certificate
> chain on my website.  This became apparent with recent upgrade of
> browsers.  I had obtained my existing SSL certificate following the
> protocols.

Um - had you obtained the certificate from them? If not, they have
absolutely no obligation to replace it, though if you are a customer of
theirs (I'm guessing they are your web hosting provider) I'd have
expected a little better level of assistance.

> They wanted to provide me with a replacement SSL certificate without
> a CSR, and offered me an URL as the solution when I turned them
> down.  To add insult to injury, the URL was one I used to help
> diagnose my problem.
> 
> How has our IT been reduced to this level, and what redress do I
> have?

None, practically speaking. Simplest solution is to change providers
pronto. I can recommend VentraIP (I'd be very disappointed and
surprised if it were them of whom you speak).

If your website is a cPanel site (and these days almost all small sites
are) then they (and most similar providers) will move your site, lock
stock and barrel, for free. Even if is not a cPanel site, it is almost
certainly still very easy to move, though if you can't do it yourself
it will cost you money to hire someone to do it.

If your domain is with the same providers who have disappointed you
over the SSL cert, you can move the domain for free too; possibly you
will have to renew it, but that just extends the registration period,
so no cost there that you would not have had anyway.

Happy to talk you through the process in detail - not that there is
much of it! - if you get in touch off-list.

Many providers, including VentraIP, will also give you a free SSL
certificate. Or, if you have the skills (not many needed) you can use a
certificate from LetsEncrypt, also free. I haven't done that myself,
but know many who have, and it is allegedly a well-documented doddle.

Regards, K.

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Karl Auer (kauer at biplane.com.au)
http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer
http://twitter.com/kauer389

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