Hello,

I am trying to install multiple SSL certificates, but am having trouble. Therefore I have a few questions.

1) Do I need a unique IP for each hostname I want to secure?

ie: I have a cert for:

helpdesk.mydomain.com
billing.mydomain.com

Do I need a unique IP for each of those?


The reason I ask, is because it seems like when I install the two certs (using DA).. the last one "overwrites" the previous.

So if I install only the helpdesk.mydomain.com cert everything is fine. But then when I install the cert for billing.mydomain.com, I start getting a browser error when visiting helpdesk.mydomain.com saying that the cert is for the wrong domain. (It says that the domain it is for is billing.mydomain.com.) So it seems like the last cert I install is overwriting any other cert that is installed.

Am I doing something wrong?

Thanks!

You can only have one SSL per IP address.

You might check out what is called a wildcard SSL. It is a little more expensive, but allows for all sub-domains to be secured

If you are using wildcard ssl then 1 ip is ok. Try http://www.cacert.org for free ssl

Yes - for normal SSL installation each site must have a unique IP address (because SSL encryption does not "see" host headers only the IP address).

If you need to secure multiple subdomains, a "shared SSL" implementation can be a good solution.  Create one secure site www.securedsite.com (http://www.securedsite.com) and then redirect from the other sites to that site for secure pages. 

"shared SSL hosting" works that way by mapping a virtual directory/folder for each site that wants secure pages.

I'd just like to point out about Wildcard certificates - they still need a separate IP per subdomain (its a common misconception that they don't).

So, with 1 IP, your choices are shared SSL, i.e:
https://domain.com/~customer/

OR, you could run the SSL on non-standard ports.
This works, BUT you have to be careful.
It might work if you have a shopping cart type system, where you can re-direct your customers as you need to. Otherwise, a bit of a no-no.