Steps to Force SSL Using the .htaccess

An SSL certificate is important for your website. It encrypts the data that your consumers share on your website and contributes to the development of visitor trust. SSL secures data, including bank account information, credit/debit card information, and personal customer information. Furthermore, installing an SSL certificate on your website contributes to improving its search engine rating.

So, the visitors on your website should be accessing it using an SSL-encrypted connection for additional security, accessibility or PCI compliance.

Hostvento offers SSL certificate with its entire web hosting plans. You can activate this SSL in your Account Management Panel (AMP) under My Account > Manage Free SSL.

You can force visitors to use SSL through your .htaccess file using mod_rewrite.

Forcing HTTPS with .htaccess

1. Redirect All Web Traffic

If you want to force all web traffic to use SSL certificate, run the following code in the .htaccess file in your website’s root folder.

NOTE: If there is an existing code in your .htaccess, add this code above where you will find rules with a similar starting prefix. If there are any issues afterwards, move the new code below some elements – e.g. Options +FollowSymLinks.

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} !on
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/[0-9]+\..+\.cpaneldcv$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/\.well-known/pki-validation/[A-F0-9]{32}\.txt(?:\ Comodo\ DCV)?$
RewriteRule (.*) https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]

2. Redirect Only Specified Domain

In order to force a specific domain for using HTTPS, you can use the below code in the .htaccess file in your website’s root folder:

NOTE: If there is an existing code in your .htaccess, add this code above where you will find rules with a similar starting prefix. If there are any issues afterwards, move the new code below some elements – e.g. Options +FollowSymLinks.

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/[0-9]+\..+\.cpaneldcv$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/\.well-known/pki-validation/[A-F0-9]{32}\.txt(?:\ Comodo\ DCV)?$
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^example\.com [NC]
RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} 80
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://www.example.com/$1 [R=301,L]

If the above code isn’t working, remove the first two lines and run the code as below:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^example\.com [NC]
RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} 80
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://www.example.com/$1 [R=301,L]

Ensure that you replace example.com with the domain name for which you are forcing https. Also, you need to replace www.example.com with your actual domain name.

3. Redirect Specified Folder

In case you want to force SSL on a specific folder, input the below code into a .htaccess file that is placed in that particular folder:

NOTE: If there is an existing code in your .htaccess, add this code above where you will find rules with a similar starting prefix. If there are any issues afterwards, move the new code below some elements – e.g. Options +FollowSymLinks.

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/[0-9]+\..+\.cpaneldcv$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/\.well-known/pki-validation/[A-F0-9]{32}\.txt(?:\ Comodo\ DCV)?$
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} 80
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} folder
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://www.example.com/folder/$1 [R=301,L]

Ensure that you change the folder reference to the original folder name. Then make sure to replace www.example.com/folderwith your original domain name and folder, you want to force the SSL on.

In this way, you can easily force SSL on any website using the .htaccess.