: Can not having sha-256 encryption cause gmail to not work? My website is on a shared host platform. For over five years I was able to send smtp email via gmail from server side script but

@Radia820

Your website does not require a SSL certificate, what Google is referring to is sending emails over SSL. To do this you must use TLS/SSL to send the email, what this means is that your sending emails over a secure connection.

It sounds like your script it outdated or it requires some changes to the settings. Gmail and other emails providers send mail using port 25 but for a secure (TLS or SSL) connection this is port 465. Depending on the script that you use it could be as simple as changing the port number from 25 to 465. If further help adapting the PHP code then your need to ask on Stack Overflow.

In the event that you are connecting over a secure connection then its likely your web host will need to update their OpenSSL version. This is easy and almost instant. Any good web hosting company should be doing stuff like this already.

The whole panic of Google abandoning support for SHA1 was that many secure websites used SHA1 certifications. So, since your website doesn't require SSL, there is little to worry about.

However, since your website has a contact form it would be a good idea to get a SHA2 SSL cert installed on your hosting. Google will reward you some SEO benefit for it too, how much is anyone's guess.

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