You may be wanting to register a new domain for your business but you may be unsure if you should go ahead with a .com.au registration or a .com or another TLD. We hope to clarify the pros and cons of .com.au registration over conventional .com and other domain TLDs.

.com.au is a domain TLD that is regulated by Australia just like .us domains are managed by the US delegated departments. This for 99% of us doesn’t make a difference but if a lawsuit was to happen hypothetically they would have to go through Australian legal channels to get the domain taken down or seized. The US gov would act unlawfully if they tried to seize a domain that they don’t have jurisdiction over, although technically they managed many of the DNS servers in the world. However, the most likely outcome if the Australian gov failed to seize a domain the US would block the website from being accessible rather than unlawfully seizing it.

Apart from that legal aspect having a .com.au domain just gives your consumers the belief that you are a proper Australian business because Australian .com.au domains have to be registered with an ABN. This creates additional trust with this particular TLD as overseas scam agencies have trouble registering these domains and the ownership of the domain and the business can be looked up.

The only requirement for .com.au registration is that you need an ABN

You need to have an Australian Business Number for .com.au registration and it should be noted that the ABN holder is the legal lessee of the domain. Usually, the registrant is the owner of the domain but .com.au is a domain that falls out of this rule.

We do facilitate a chown (change of ownership) of domains but we need to have a conversation with both parties involved and there are fees involved.

Consider buying an SSL certificate for your .com.au Domain Registration

Because .com.au is a more reputable and trusted TLD for Australian consumers you might also want to invest in having an SSL certificate for your website. WebJex shared hosting offers cPanel auto-SSL certificates that are issued from cPanel. We don’t charge extra for this service with our web hosting but we also do encourage you to consider purchasing a premium SSL certificate which is backed by a warranty in case the encryption is ever breached and you are looking at fines or financial loss the warranty with a premium SSL certificate will help your business in damage control. If you just want a basic SSL certificate to make your website compliant with payment vendors we also recommend LetsEncrypt.

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.com.au Domain Registration FAQ

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Adelaide Web Hosting Support

SSL certificates work to keep your connection secure

SSL certificates encrypt your web traffic between you and the server. This is done through the SSL protocol https:// which uses port 443 on your device to establish that secure connection.

SSL certificates increase your user’s confidence with your brand

Another reason why you need an SSL certificate is trusted websites have the reputation of using SSL on their websites and it really does lift the trust between the site and the user. It could be said that visiting a website with SSL does create a kind of virtual handshake between a website and a user.

SSL certificates make your website faster

SSL because of its technical aspects make loading pages slightly faster because it splits the traffic between two protocols and is a more constant direct user to server connection than the normal HTTP:// requests over port 80. It is just that SSL is a more efficient technology than HTTP.

SSL certificates stop prying eyes

Keeping your connection from prying eyes is reduced greatly by using websites that use https:// enabled on their site. This prevents from typical spying and having what you do on these websites monitored by hackers.

SSL certificates are cheap

SSL Certificates are cheap and are sometimes free. There are benefits to paying extra for an SSL certificate.

Getting an SSL certificate

You can ask your web hosting provider for assistance with installing the certificate on your account. cPanel hosting usually offers an auto-SSL certificate which is issued by cPanel for your domains and subdomains for a few months and then is renewed. It may be beneficial to purchase a retail SSL certificate for your domain because not all SSL certificates are the same.

SSL certificates are needed for compliance

Many e-commerce providers who provide secure API’s and process payment information securely so you wouldn’t be able to run an e-commerce website without it. And if you are collecting any kind of user data like names, addresses, and phone numbers then you definitely need an SSL certificate. Users would be hesitant of handing any information over on a non-secure website. It’s the strongest reason why you need an SSL certificate.

In fact, if you don’t take precautions to protect users data you can be held liable for security breaches and you could be fined a huge sum of money depending on the size of the breach. Having a paid SSL certificate that is issued by a premium provider they offer insurance if the SSL is ever breached. For example if the SSL connection is decrypted by any means (which is an unlikely scenario) they will pay out a lump sum to cover liability costs such as fines and legal fees.

This might be a reason to choose a premium SSL provider rather than a free provider such as Let’sEncrypt or cPanel SSL certificates. From personal experience from using premium SSL certificates and free certificate providers there are pros and cons but if you’re just running a simple blog and not collecting data or processing private information you could justify just using a free SSL certificate.

If you are running a e-commerce website than a strong reason to get a premium SSL certificate is that your site will become targetted by hackers and known exploits. Hackers would go above and beyond to hack into your website if you become a big enough business to virtually rob of personal information. Most businesses that have serious sized security breaches lost their reputation and trust. Usually, it becomes such a big PR issue for the business that it never goes away.

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7 Reasons why you need a SSL Certificate

An SSL Certificate given to an organization is based from the Root Certification. The same Root Certification should be present on the end consumer ’s pc in order for the issued SSL Certificate to be trusted. The browser and OS vendors work with Certificate Authorities, or so the Root Certification is embedded within their applications.

Complete User and Organizational Factors of View 
For end users, SSL could hardly be simpler. Safe web addresses start with “https://” rather than just “http://”.

Users see a padlock symbol inside their own browser. And that’s about it.

In comparison, for organizations conducting email servers, e-commerce sites or hosting system administration resources, it’s a little more involved.

To authenticate themselves to customers and customers, and prove to customers they’re working with the right thing, organizations need to acquire an SSL Certificate.

The Goal: To Establish Trusted Interactions Online 
In case the local Root Certification, as well as the remote-issued SSL Certificate, aren’t correctly matched, the browser displays messages to the consumer concerning untrusted mistakes. When they’re matched, the user can move with confidence.

The 2 parties (the local consumer ’s browser and the remote webserver) first swap a symmetric encryption key. “Symmetric” means the same key is used to encrypt data that’s transmitted and decrypt it on arrival at the other end. The “forward secrecy” assembled to the system ensures the short term symmetric key cannot be deduced from the long-term asymmetric crucial, for further protection against hacking.

Types of SSL Certificates

Three types of SSL Certificates exist.

1. Extended Validation (EV) SSL Certificates

These are issued only following the Certificate Authority has verified the exclusive right of the business to use the domain name concerned and also a number of additional aspects:

The legal, physical, and operational Presence of the business
Consistency between the organization’s identity and official documents
Good authorization by the organization of the issuance of the EV SSL Certification

2. Organization Validation (OV) SSL Certificates

These include checking the right of the business to use the domain name, and a few, but not all, of the rest of the verification done in case of the EV SSL Certification above. End-users may see additional info on the organization.

3. Domain Validation (DV) SSL Certificates

Lastly, these restrict verification to checking the right of the business to use the domain name concerned. Consequently, end-users will just see info concerning the encryption, maybe not about the organization.

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What is a SSL Certificate and why you should have one