SSL, Menu Visibility

[Rebekah Smith]

Hello,

It has been so long since I've been tuned into this WordPress group that I had to double check to make sure that I was still subscribed. I gather that this is still a place to get help with WP, right? I need to learn more about SSL certificates and controlling the visibility of menus based on page categories.

Could someone please point me to information about SSL certificates. Browsing the archives here, I got the impression that paying for a certificate isn't "normal." Is that right? Is it also correct that I must get one even if my site is just a blog without a commercial element? There's no other way to deal with the "This site is not secure" message that site visitors see, right?

My other question has to do with menus. I want to change the menu in the sidebar/widget area based on a page category. In the past, I was able to do this with a plug-in (I think). This might've been pre Gutenberg. As I've looked for solutions more recently, I keep encountering problems that make me think that I'm missing something. Where should I be looking for a solution?  

Your suggestions would be appreciated. 

Thanks!

Rebekah

[Nick Ciske]

Purchasing an SSL certificate is quite normal, but no longer really necessary if you’re on the right host, as just about every decent host  you’d want to be on offers free SSL via LetsEncrypt. 

 

If you do buy one, you should not spend more than like ~$10 a year though — anything else is just highway robbery at this point.

 

You can also sign up for a free cloudflare account, which will issue you a free certificate for your domain and give you a free origin SSL certificate to install on your server (if you use their free proxy service). 

 

Yes, installing a valid SSL certificate is the only way to get rid of the “insecure site” warning. This has been the case for many years and it’s not going to change.

 

The changing the sub menu per section question is very much theme/plugin specific. I’ll let someone else tackle that one.

_________________________

Nick Ciske

CTO/CISO | LuminFire

[Rebekah Smith]

Thank you, Nick. This gives me something to start with regarding the SSL. I'm using A Small Orange for a hosting service. I've been there from the beginning and dread the idea of changing. However, I get the impression that I could do better. 

Regarding the question about menus, for anyone who might have some tips, I'm using the twenty-thirteen theme. 

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[Nick Ciske]

Huh. They don’t offer free SSL and charge a ridiculous rate for even basic certs. $8/mo?! Unreal! I didn’t realize they were even still around. 

 

Your options look like buy your own annually at SSLs.com ($4-8/year) or Namexheap.com ($6/year) or go the free route through cloudflare and you’ll be good for ~15 years until you need to do anything else (which is just rotate your origin certs). 

_________________________

Nick Ciske

CTO/CISO | LuminFire

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[David A]

Hi.  Depending on where you are hosting, your provider may be able to provide you one.  Yes, you want to have a certificate in your site even if it is a blog.  I believe that Google won't even index your site if not https

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mpls-stpaul-wordpress/31285cb0-b1ab-4353-8313-5749f0a45731%40Spark.

[Rebekah Smith]

Thanks. This is all helpful. It sounds like I should think about a different host at some point. I've never moved a site but can imagine the process. If anyone can recommend a guide or tutorial, that would be great. I'd also be curious about a host recommendation or things to look for in a host.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mpls-stpaul-wordpress/CABmzz7icyX_DdqUv-axYM0pBMfGaaDHSS6EE4J1%3DUgC%2BH0KyYQ%40mail.gmail.com.

[David A]

Kimberly, i never used these plugins, so not sure how they work.  But good practices when selecting a plugin are check number of downloads, if it is compatible with your WP, and if the author is actively maintaining the plugin when people report issues. Here a the plugin names along with their number of downloads:

Content Aware Sidebars – 100,000+ active installations

Widget Logic – 200,000+ active installations

Custom Sidebars – Dynamic Widget Area Manager – 100,000+ active installations

Dynamic Widgets – 100,000+ active installations

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mpls-stpaul-wordpress/CAGAMKwqChVAac505qUTLNAQp%2BomjQruovSDhPjeAht6FGYzsOw%40mail.gmail.com.

[Rebekah Smith]

Thank you. I'll give it a try.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mpls-stpaul-wordpress/CABmzz7gvnbr6Ppx8m57EUrc2%3D5jQsCTGXR3wMVJf47yV%3DbtXdQ%40mail.gmail.com.

[Rebekah Smith]

Thank you to everyone who has offered suggestions for my questions regarding SSL certificates, recommended hosting services and conditional widgets/navigation menus.

I'm still having trouble with controlling when menus appear on the page. I think there is something fundamental that I do not understand. 

The plug-ins that I've tried for controlling the visibility of menus work on certain widget items and not others. I think this has to do with "block" items and "classical" items, such as menus. I only see one way to create a menu (under Appearance/Menus/) using the TwentySixteen theme (changed from TwentyTwelve). Is there another way to create menus that I should be using? Related to that, should "classic" widgets be phased out?

Oddly, I have a website that works the way I want it to work. In the widget area, each item has a "visibility" setting. So I'm confused by why I can have another website using the same theme and plug-ins but do not get the same user interface in the widget area. 

I'll keep at it and let you know if I discover anything.

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[David A]

Let me know if I can help?  No charge for a 1 hour consultation.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mpls-stpaul-wordpress/CAGAMKwqhBcm_sU5vfm0qdhNpU2wh8zGijtWqwMNdCHT-nD%3DOcQ%40mail.gmail.com.

[Rebekah Smith]

Wow! Thanks everyone. The help is appreciated. 

I found a solution. I had two sites with the same theme and the same plug-ins. On one site, I had the option to set the visibility of widgets but not the other. The solution was to turn on the function/feature in the JetPack plug-in. When searching for a solution, it appeared to be key to refer to "conditional widgets" vs "conditional navigation menu." 

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mpls-stpaul-wordpress/CABmzz7gWQAoirZFg_ydOqUCv86xAzk%3DCUyWR4CBF%2BrUgPXkfKw%40mail.gmail.com.

[Jason Olson]

I had a good experience with A2 Hosting and now Hostinger. Both provide free SSL certificates.

I second the suggestion of Cloudflare for SSL, although it's definitely a step up in complexity and things that can go wrong. Once you use it, though, I don't know that you ever go back!

Hostinger has a nice site migration tool. You provide your website URL and WordPress credentials, and it migrates the site for you. That might take 15 minutes or maybe several hours. Then all you do is point your domain's A record to your Hostinger IP address.

A2 advertises this as well, although I don't remember if I ever used it.

Or you can use a plugin like WP Vivid, which I believe is free. You create a backup on your current site, download locally to your laptop, then create a new temporary site on the new host, install WP Vivid, upload the backup, and restore. Then point the A record.

Jason Olson

Unveiled Media

[Rebekah Smith]

Thank you. There is definitely a dread factor in moving the site. So, it's super helpful to have something of a roadmap to get started.

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[David A]

Jason this is a great suggestion.

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[Kim Wilson]

Rebekah, thank you for coming back to post your solution!  I wasn't sure if this group was still running either...for some reason the notifications weren't showing for me until this conversation popped up this week.

This is a good list of hosting companies to avoid:  https://hostscore.net/learn/eig-hosting/

EIG, or now Newfold Digital, is a group that just buys up small hosting companies and then runs them into the ground. For many years I hosted sites on many of the hosting companies in the list, only to find one day that when I needed support, their support teams had been sent offshore with long wait times, or had completely disappeared.  Or worse, I'd have single-page static html sites getting hacked with malware and then they'd want to charge me $300+ to "clean it", even though it was their purposely-insecure shared hosting practices at fault. Once they have your monthly $ as income, they don't care...they just use it as leverage to buy more hosting companies. I think EIG is slightly better behaved now (because once people caught on, a class-action lawsuit started brewing)...but they're still not great. I advise anyone to avoid them when looking for hosting.  It took me a couple years before I got completely fed up and was like, "Wait a second...I have a degree in networking and cybersecurity...why am I not just running my own server?!!"  I've been running my own hosting server on AWS for me and many of my clients for about 8 years now with zero issues.  

When it comes to transferring hosting between servers, it's great if both use cPanel under the hood to manage the hosting (many do!) - that way you can usually back up the entire account and restore it.  All files, DNS records, forwarders will transfer.  But I also like to make transfers an opportunity to "clean house" -- especially if the site has been affected by malware in the past. I'll make a full back up, but I'll only put necessary things on the new host.  I install a fresh WordPress, manually copy the wp-content folder and wp-settings, and restore a backup of the database using phpmysql.  (It doesn't get rid of any backdoor files in wp-content, but it does if they're lurking in core WordPress).  

[David A]

Thanks for the hosting list.  it is good to know.

[Rebekah Smith]

Thank you, Kim

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