What is a Wildcard SSL certificate?
A Wildcard SSL Certificate secures your website URL and an unlimited number of its subdomains. The Wildcard SSL Certificate works the same way as a regular SSL certificate, undergoes the same validation processes, and is available as either a Standard or a Deluxe certificate.
The difference is that the Wildcard SSL Certificate extends to all of the subdomains of your domain that you want to secure. For example, www. coolexample.com, shop. coolexample.com, and register. coolexample.com can all be secured with a single Wildcard SSL Certificate.
NOTE: Some operating systems expect a dedicated and static IP for each of the subdomains that are utilizing the single wildcard certificate.
When generating a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) for a Wildcard certificate, add an asterisk (*) to the left of the Common Name where you want to specify the wildcard.
Examples:
- *.coolexample.com secures www.coolexample.com, secure.coolexample.com, etc.
- www*.coolexample.com secures www1.coolexample.com, www2.domainnamehere.com, etc.
- *.mail.coolexample.com secures secure.mail.coolexample.com, www.mail.coolexample.com, etc.
TIP: *.coolexample.com will NOT work for mail.www.coolexample.com when viewing the website on Internet Explorer as Microsoft expects the asterisk in the leading position. FireFox 3, however, will read mail.www. as the entire replacement for the asterisk.