Strange problem with SSL

[scottie2212]

Hi everyone,

I've got a very strange problem with SSL. I've already raised a ticket but that got me nowhere.

Out of about fifteen different computers attempting to access our site only two have been successful. We have used PC's and Mac's through IE, Firefox and Safari and cannot tie the problem down to one combination. To further confuse things, my own PC works through IE at any time but has only been able to connect once through Firefox. I have checked the list of 'known authorities' and our certificate provider is listed. The attached image is the warning generated by Firefox when attempting to connect to the ssl site.

Can anyone throw any light onto this very annoying problem.

Scottie.

[Administrator]

it seems that cabundle has messedup or the certificate was not issued properly. Shane ( VPS Team leader ) is working on this problem and he will reply once it is sorted.

[scottie2212]

Not only are you Administrator, you are also Amazing, Outstanding and

If this is resolved before Monday I will have to say you're the absolute tops, number one, Da Man, etc, etc, etc...

Scottie,

Who is getting more and more impressed every day.

[Dan]

May i also add that Shayne is a good person to place incharge of VPS's. He is the person who i get through to the most and he's a really impressive guy!

You should have this problem sorted soon

[Sebastian]

Hey,

Can you please check it now as we have REPLACED the incorrect cabundle file. So it should work fine now.

-----------------
Best Regards,
Sebastian
Senior System Administrator

[scottie2212]

Hey,

Can you please check it now as we have REPLACED the incorrect cabundle file. So it should work fine now.

Hi Sebastian,

I'm afraid it still isn't working!

Scottie

[scottie2212]

I realise you're all very busy, hopefully trying to resolve this ssl problem but could someone please take just a few minutes to update me on the current situation either here or on the ticket.

Many thanks,

Scottie

[scottie2212]

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear...

After almost a full day of tickets and phone calls we're no nearer a solution. I am just about to give up and pull the plug. I'm sick of reading garbage like the following in tickets...

"We have checked URL https://ssl.secure2-gb-energy.com in both internet browser, IE and Mozilla Firefox. It is working fine without any error.
Please clear cache on your local machine and try to access it once."

"Problem seems to be cache at your ISP end, your side error will be get resolve once your ISP cache refreshed."
At this point I asked, "Can you raise this issue with the certificate provider to see if they come up with any answers? Or, if not, can I raise the issue with them myself?" That didn't warrant a response at all!!!

So, having been told the fault as everything but the certificate I get this..
"Can you please check it now as we have REPLACED the incorrect cabundle file. So it should work fine now."

Then, this morning, I assume as part of the attempt to fix the problem, they did something which killed access to the site. After another few hours I get this response...
"We tried to install the SSL certificate for ssl.secure2-gb-energy.com and the certificated is installed properly on your VPS without any problem but you are not having any such site "ssl.secure2-gb-energy.com" hosted on your VPS due to which while access your site as "secure2-gb-energy.com" is redirecting to https://ssl.secure2-gb-energy.com/index.php URL as ssl.secure2-gb-energy.com not hosted due to which we are getting 404 error. You have to check the site and make the pages to get it work."
So, having told me that "everything was working" at least ten times by now, they them tell me that I don't even have a site anymore. Still, no worries 'eh, the ssl is working! WRONG, nothing is working... we're going backwards here.

At this point I was getting even more annoyed so I said, "I would like this ticket passed to a senior manager for review.
I would also like a response within half an hour and a reasonable estimate of how long it is going to take to fix this cock-up." I really wasn't surprised when this was also ignored.

Over an hour later the site was back on-line and I got this reply...
"Apologize for the late reply as we are working on your issue and it takes some time to resolve. Can you please give a try now? Everything is working fine."
Oh Yeah! WRONG!!!!

Once again, I asked, "Has anyone contacted the certificate vendor yet?"
Once again, my question was ignored.

And then, as if I wasn't getting annoyed enough I get this gem...
"Can you please just let us know that have you purchase the SSL certificate from any SSL provider, because I have checked everything and you were having self signed certificated which is generated from your server it self due to which were getting such warning messages. If you want a dedicated SSL then you have to purchase the new dedicated SSL certificate for more details regarding SSL certificate please contact our billing department at [email protected]."
Now, if he'd checked with the billing dept he'd have got his answer but I was now losing it and I got really annoyed.

My reply was...
"Now you're taking the pi$$.
Why don't you contact your billing people yourself before making up excuses for your own failings and trying to fob me off.
Why do you suppose I suggested YOU contact the certificate vendor?
No, we didn't purchase the SSL certificate from any SSL provider, we purchased it from a company called Web Hosting UK, do you have any idea who that company is?
If we have a self-generated certificate then that is your fault. Read the following carefully... snipped" At this point I pasted a chat transcript from when one of their operators installed the certificate in the first place.
Hang on, did he not install the dedicated certificate that I've already paid for?

The next reply was a real doozie...
"We are forwarding this our SSL certificate department and your issue will be resolved totally in next 20 minutes. We really apologize for the inconvenience faced by you."
So now he's telling me they have an SSL department! Why wasn't the issue sent to them in the first place?

At tyhis point I had a look at WHM and the SSL certificate mamanger. It is now a jumbled mess of multiple certificates. I ask myself why? Is it laziness or does the server work better with all the junk in there?

Next comes another gem...
"I really apologize for inconvenience cause to you, SSL ceritificate was not properly installed for your domain ssl.secure2-gb-energy.com, I have reinstalled it can you please verify same at your end."

And I couldn't resist saying this...
"Then it would appear that you, too, have failed to install it properly as there is still no change, I am still getting the certificate warning.
How many times will you reinstall this certificate before realising that simply reinstalling it DOES NOT WORK?

Perhaps if some clever person deleted everything that I can see in my WHM >> Main >> SSL/TLS >> SSL Key/Crt Manager ( see below ) then started again from scratch you might have more succcess.

QUOTE " We are forwarding this our SSL certificate department and your issue will be resolved totally in next 20 minutes. We really apologize for the inconvenience faced by you." END QUOTE
Why wasn't it forwarded to the SSL department from the very start?
This is a very long twenty minutes, do you use a different clock to everyone else?"

Now I'm just a simpleton, I don't profess to know how a web server should be set-up or configured. I don't pretend to know anything about Apache or Linux or any of the other software that runs on the server. But one thing I do know is that, when trying to fix a problem, you don't attemp to apply the same correction twice. If it didn't work the first time, why would you expect it work the second time. Also, I would have thought it common sense that, having tried three unsuccessful repairs, you'd go back to the start and begin again with a clean slate.

Well, I'm still waiting for a reply to my latest. I wonder how much will be ignored this time.

Administrator, if you read this, might I suggest you take some drastic action. Web Hosting UK is one the verge of losing a customer.

Scottie.

[Administrator]

Hi Scottie,

I've checked https://ssl.secure2-gb-energy.com/index.php as well as https://ssl.secure2-gb-energy.com from my local machine as well as some remote windows servers using IE as well as Mozilla and I don't see any errors at all. We need to see error to fix such problem.

I don't see anything wrong done from our end as you are getting error but we don't see any such error. I will request our billing department to issue refund for the SSL certificate and you can get a new certificate from some other SSL provider. I think this will be the best solution for this problem.

[scottie2212]

Hi Scottie,

I've checked https://ssl.secure2-gb-energy.com/index.php as well as https://ssl.secure2-gb-energy.com from my local machine as well as some remote windows servers using IE as well as Mozilla and I don't see any errors at all. We need to see error to fix such problem.

I don't see anything wrong done from our end as you are getting error but we don't see any such error. I will request our billing department to issue refund for the SSL certificate and you can get a new certificate from some other SSL provider. I think this will be the best solution for this problem.

As I said originally, it is a strange problem. I, too, can access the site with IE on my own PC but Firefox generates the warning so I can only assume there is some sort of very minor fault.

Anyway, I don't want to labour this issue. I do want to have this site up and running on Monday morning. I invite you to have a look at the WHM for our VPS and see what the SSL certificate Manager folder is like. To me, it's a mess, so many people have worked on this and have left the folder cluttered with a variety of certificates. Perhaps if all that was cleaned out it might make things easier.

However, I am sure you've sold Dedicated certificates and VPS combinations many, many times without any problem. Might I suggest a drastic measure...

Wipe the VPS completely and rebuild it from scratch.

I have back-ups of all the files I need so this could be done as soon as possible. Apart from the ssl, the only thing I need that I cannot do myself is to import the database we are running from our old host but your staff have done this for me once already and a fanatsic job they did of it.

Scottie.

[Administrator]

Hi Scottie,

You will need to submit a ticket from registered email address only to get this done. I cannot get your vps reloaded as we need you to submit a ticket for this task for authentication purpose.

[scottie2212]

I'm glad to hear that and I'll get a ticket raised as soon as possible.

Thanks for all your efforts and lets hope this will resolve the problem.

Scottie.