In order to activate your SSL certificate decide whether you are going to use the certificate for www.domain.com or for domain.com. There is a considerable difference between www.domain.com and domain.com.
- Login to your Cpanel and generate a CSR. For information on how to generate a CSR, click here.
- Login to your TFhost account and go to Service -> My Services.
- Click on the View Details button next to the certificate that you just purchased.
- Click on View Certificate Details and then click on Configure Certificate
- Choose your web server type (Most of the time it is Cpanel/WHM) if you actually use it. Scroll down and copy and paste your entire CSR.
- ( starting with: -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE REQUEST-----...). You would also need to fill out the contact details. Ensure that the phone number field is filled in the international format (e.g. 2348012345678)
- You will then need to choose an approver email of your choice this is under the "Administrative Contact Information" from a generic list of @domainname.com email addresses most preferably admin@yourdomainname.com and enter contact details.
Note: For security reasons, an approver email can only be sent to any one of the generic @domainname.com email addresses, so if you do not have a valid mailbox for any of those email addresses, please set email forwarding (contact your domain registrar for support with this step).
Finalize the process.
You will then receive the approver email containing an authorization link at the @domainname.com email address that you chose while activating. Clicking on the link in the authorization email will approve the certificate issuance. Once this is done you will be asked to submit the necessary documents in the case of organization/EV certificates.
Finally, you will receive your SSL certificate at your email address. You will then need to contact your hosting provider to have the SSL installed on the server.
