Not sure where to begin, first I do have some issues understanding the tech computer English (am Swedish) so I often find my self repeating my questions just to be sure.
Have a VPS that Gizmo suggested some years back at Interserver, had some issues a few years back and IS pointed my domain thru Cloudflare.
That said I can actually use both HTTP or HTTPS to open forum pages. Dunno if its because of CF or not. See-
http://www.EXAMPLE.com/forums/https://www.EXAMPLE.com/forums/What do you get from that?
Within the VPS I have both WHM for the overall and cpanel for EXAMPLE.com domain account.
Looking at CP I notice within the domain I can turn on force HTTPS redirect.
There is a SSL certificate with a RSA Key, and it seems valid. AutoSSL Domain Validated.
Looks like I'm at #3 which is easy as I have so few pages online now, #4 is a big task at the moment as I must ask more about the SQL queries..
I guess I must close the forum and backup before #3. OH how do I know #2 is configured properly?
1) Obtain a valid security certificate from your webhost or a reputable third-party seller. I've purchased many "PositiveSSL" certs from SSLs.com.
2) Install it using SHA-2 and make sure it is configured properly.
3) Update ALL your URLs in the Control Panel or manually in your config.ini file. This includes the Homepage URLs, Contact pages, Referer Check, any forum headers/footers, etc.
4) Run a SQL query on your posts, private messages, user avatars, profile comments tables to replace "http://www.YOURDOMAIN.COM" with "https://www.YOURDOMAIN.COM"
5) Set up HTTP to HTTPS 301 redirects in your .htaccess file to forward from http:// to https://
6) Update all external plugins to ensure they are HTTPS compliant (sharaholic, twitter, facebook, youtube, ubb custom-tags, and, if your website contains non-UBB.threads content, all those internal site links - trust me you won't find them all in a single pass)
7) Test your website.
BONUS: Update your URLs in google/bing webmaster tools. Update any ads placed on your website, such as Google Adsense. Update any website analytics code.
Anyway I'm rambling a bit its late here and I'm up early for some volunteering work.. Someone must drive the Zamboni ice-resurfacing machine early in the morning and day for the young players and ice figure skating boys and girls.
Cheers
