Title: Multisite SSL Help?
Last modified: August 30, 2016

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# Multisite SSL Help?

 *  [pomtom44](https://wordpress.org/support/users/pomtom44/)
 * (@pomtom44)
 * [10 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/multisite-ssl-help/)
 * Hey all, Im hoping someone can help me with a odd issue im having
 * Currently I have a multisite set up on my domain
    example.com site1.example.com
   site2.example.com and so on
 * I have a few users who can login to the site to write articles and so on which
   is working wonderfully, but this is where it gets interesting
 * I have a SSL cert for the root domain, example.com
    I can easily set up wordpress
   to use https to login and that works fine. However the cert I got was only for
   the root domain and not for any of the subdomains for the following reason
 * When a user logs into the site, no matter what subdomain they are on, I have 
   htaccess set up to redirect them to the root domain to login,
    I have also set
   up a plugin to hide the wp-admin page and only /login will give you a login prompt
 * Here is where my problem is
 * If I enable SSL for the main site it works fine until I change to a subdomain
   site
    There I either get a SSL warning (as the HTTPS doesnt recognise a valid
   cert) or I get a page not found warning, because of my disabled wp-admin
 * I have a feeling the following is happening but im not sure how to fix it
    I 
   think when you login to the main site using SSL it creates the cookie based of
   the SSL and makes you use the HTTPS site. so when you go to a non https admin
   page it doesnt see you as logged in and gives you the error
 * So what im asking after all of these issues is this
 * Can I redirect my users to the main site to login using SSL
    When they have logged
   in it redirects them to a non secure site so that they can travel between the
   subdomains without getting SSL warnings.
 * I hope this all makes sense, (It kind of does in my head but no idea if its come
   across)
 * Thanks in advance
    PomTom

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

 *  [Eric Amundson](https://wordpress.org/support/users/sewmyheadon/)
 * (@sewmyheadon)
 * [10 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/multisite-ssl-help/#post-6818409)
 * Hey PomTom,
 * I’ll try to help here.
 * My suspicion is that WP is not automatically redirecting you to the HTTP subdomain,
   meaning, it’s not doing a good job of switching between HTTPS and HTTP, when 
   switching sites.
 * A few things you can try:
    1. Optimally, I’d say encrypt everything – run it all under HTTPS. For some, this
       is tough because of the extra cost of multiple certs or wildcard certs. Since
       [LetsEncrypt.org](https://letsencrypt.org/) launched and is offering free SSL
       certs, you could look into this and see if your host would support it. If so,
       you can install certs for your subdomains and run everything securely.
    2. If #1 isn’t feasible, you could look at a plugin solution like [WordPress HTTPS](https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-https/),
       which gives you some more controls regarding HTTPS within the WP Admin, including
       forcing SSL or non-SSL sessions.
    3. Look at your host’s control panel (cPanel, Plesk, or whatever they offer) to
       see if you can setup server-side redirects to redirect users depending on the
       URL or URL patterns they’re visiting.
 * I hope that makes sense and good luck!
 * Eric
 *  Thread Starter [pomtom44](https://wordpress.org/support/users/pomtom44/)
 * (@pomtom44)
 * [10 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/multisite-ssl-help/#post-6818456)
 * Hey Eric 🙂
    Thanks for the quick reply
 * I was hoping to avoid having to run multiple certs as you said cost and just 
   having to manage multiple ones, but if thats the only/best option I may have 
   to look into it
 * I am hosting everything on a VPS so any config will be done manually rather than
   cPanel,
 * I should also check if it is even possible to do a SSL login but after that go
   to normal http admin panel, because if that doesnt work at all ill have to go
   down the secure everything route
 *  [Eric Amundson](https://wordpress.org/support/users/sewmyheadon/)
 * (@sewmyheadon)
 * [10 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/multisite-ssl-help/#post-6818478)
 * Hey PomTom,
 * Check that WordPress HTTPS plugin I linked to earlier – it can help you force
   users to be redirected to the non-HTTPS url unless you explicitly mark a page
   as SSL.
 * I hope that helps!
 * Cheers!

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

The topic ‘Multisite SSL Help?’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [HTTPS](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/https/)
 * [SSL](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/ssl/)

 * In: [Networking WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/multisite/)
 * 3 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [Eric Amundson](https://wordpress.org/support/users/sewmyheadon/)
 * Last activity: [10 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/multisite-ssl-help/#post-6818478)
 * Status: not resolved

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