Increased Site Security

[Bonsai Nut]

In the next week I will be upgrading the site with SSL so that all communications between the web server and your browser will be encrypted. Currently the only confidential information we use on the site are your site passwords, but it is good practice in general - and something Google has been trying to get me to do for a while I don't foresee a problem but it may require a little trouble shooting to ensure all parts of the site play well with each other using the new security protocol.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

For what it's worth... this is the reason why some people get the little warning pop-ups from their browsers saying "warning - this connection may not be secure" or similar. If you look up at the URL right now you will see the leader as http://www.bonsainut.com/etc... In a few days that will be https://www.bonsainut.com. That little "s" means "secure socket layer" or SSL for short - but all you need to know is the "secure". The upgrading itself doesn't cost a lot of money but it requires me to do some things on the back end to meet the tech requirements in order to get the SSL Certificate for the site.

 

[Tieball]

In the next week I will be upgrading the site with SSL so that all communications between the web server and your browser will be encrypted. Currently the only confidential information we use on the site are your site passwords, but it is good practice in general - and something Google has been trying to get me to do for a while I don't foresee a problem but it may require a little trouble shooting to ensure all parts of the site play well with each other using the new security protocol.

Thanks for keeping a good eye on this site and following through with solutions.

 

[sorce]

Thanks!

Warnings have been regularly infrequent for me.

Sorce

 

[M. Frary]

Thanks!

Warnings have been regularly infrequent for me.

Sorce

Probably because you've cut back on the Internet porn.

 

[Cadillactaste]

Appreciate all your behind the scene time keeping the forum working for us.

 

[j evans]

That is right, now click some ads!

 

[Bonsai Nut]

So... going to be a little bit longer to make this change. I have purchased a new domain name for the parent organization that I am going to assign the SSL to, and I have to do some behind-the-scenes work to get the new domain set up.

Just background administration work that takes a fair amount of time, but yields results down the road when I don't have to deal with organizational quirks. I probably am not making sense but I know what I'm doing... mostly

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Upgraded site security is now live. Looking up at your browser address bar you should now see "https://bonsainut.com..." instead of the old "http://bonsainut.com" (without the "s" in the http). You should also see a little green padlock icon. This means all site content is now encrypted between the server and your browser.

We don't have a lot of confidential content on the site right now with the exception of your passwords, but it is a good thing to do regardless, and it makes Google happy Plus if for some reason we wanted to do something ecommerce related down the road, the site is already fully encrypted, so taking credit card payments, or what have you, will require no new site security work.

 

[milehigh_7]

Upgraded site security is now live. Looking up at your browser address bar you should now see "https://bonsainut.com..." instead of the old "http://bonsainut.com" (without the "s" in the http). You should also see a little green padlock icon. This means all site content is now encrypted between the server and your browser.

We don't have a lot of confidential content on the site right now with the exception of your passwords, but it is a good thing to do regardless, and it makes Google happy Plus if for some reason we wanted to do something ecommerce related down the road, the site is already fully encrypted, so taking credit card payments, or what have you, will require no new site security work.

Thank you for the work and investment of time and money. This place is so appreciated.

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Strange addendum for people who are technically curious.

The Internet has a love/hate relationship with Adobe Flash. For many people it is a hate/hate relationship. Some do not even install it on their systems any more, or they actively block it.

As a default, Google AdSense allows advertisers to create Flash banner ads. If AdSense tries to serve a Flash ad to your computer, and it sees that you don't have Flash installed, it will convert the ad to HTML5. Since the site security upgrade to SSL, Bonsai Nut will block mixed content as a security risk, so the site will no longer display Flash ads. However you may still have Flash installed on your computer. Google will still occasionally try to send you a Flash ad, and it will generate a security warning (yellow padlock in the browser bar) even when Bonsai Nut blocks the content from displaying.

I like the animated ads, but I don't like Flash. I am going to see if there is a way to block Flash from the site permanently (via blocking it at the AdSense source), without blocking animated GIFs or HTML5 animations.