Originally Posted by Steve C
I see that my hosting service (DreamHost) offers some help with the free 'Let's Encrypt' certificate.
Because they're free, it's a great project.

Originally Posted by Steve C
If I install the certificate, will visitors' browsers automatically find the https URL, or will there be a period of questions and problems while everyone has to figure out the change?
You'll have to send traffic over an SSL connection, you can find examples on forcing all URLs to use SSL through .htaccess on Google, I force mine over CloudFlare.

Originally Posted by Steve C
Is it reasonable to encrypt the sign-in and leave the rest un-encrypted, so that the main forums remain under the http://... URL while the sign-in screen uses the secure https://..., or is that a pain to set up?
You get a significant search engine bonus for having a full SSL site, I'd advise against what you're wanting to do.


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