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This article describes how to obtain and install a third-party SSL certificate on your hosting.com account.
ImportantMost hosting.com servers support Server Name Indication (SNI), which means SSL certificates do not require a dedicated IP address to work correctly. For more information about SNI support at hosting.com, please see SSL certificates and Server Name Indication (SNI) support.

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Installing a third-party SSL certificate

A third-party certificate is one that is not purchased from hosting.com. Hosting.com has automated options for most certificates it sells so the following steps would not be required. The process of purchasing and installing a third-party certificate consists of these main steps:
  1. Generate a private key.
  2. Use the private key plus some identifying information to generate a Certificate Signing Request (CSR).
  3. Send the CSR to a Certificate Authority (CA).
  4. Complete one or more steps for confirmation and identification as determined by the CA.
  5. Install the certificate provided by the CA along with the CA bundle if one is provided.
If you have already purchased an SSL certificate from another provider for your domain, only the final installation step is needed. To successfully install an existing certificate, you must have the private key it was generated from as well as the certificate itself and any CA bundle files.