: Does the server type matter when purchasing an SSL certificate from Network Solutions for NodeJS? I am running an instance of ExpressJS using NodeJS and wish to have it start using HTTPS. My

@Angela700

Node.js can handle certificates in multiple formats, but the most common and easiest to set up is the PEM format used by Apache, nginx, etc. It doesn't matter much what you request from NetSol, as long as it is not IIS, which uses a completely different format.

The only real hangup you may run into is with the intermediate CA certificates, which NetSol has a bunch of for some reason. These need to be concatenated together before use.

I would recommend you choose NetSol's Apache/Plesk option. With this option you'll receive several files, only two of which are important here:


example.com.crt - This is your actual certificate.
Apache_Plesk_Install.txt - Despite its confusing name, this file actually contains all of the intermediate CA certificates concatenated together, and you can use it as-is.


Of course, you will also need the private key you generated on your Ubuntu machine.

Even if you selected a different format for your keys, you should be able to log in to your account with Network Solutions and download your certificate and Apache_Plesk_Install.txt file separately.



Finally, you install these certificates somewhere on your server, and set up Node.js appropriately:

var https = require('https');
var fs = require('fs');

var options = {
key: fs.readFileSync('.../keys/private.key'),
cert: fs.readFileSync('.../keys/example.com.crt'),
ca: fs.readFileSync('.../keys/Apache_Plesk_Install.txt')
};

https.createServer(options, function (req, res) {
res.writeHead(200);
res.end("hello worldn");
}).listen(443);


And you're done!

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