NET::ERR_CERT_COMMON_NAME_INVALID

  • pbadministrator

    (@pbadministrator)


    4 years, 8 months ago

    Good evening,

    I serve on the board of a Non Profit Organisation called Protective Behaviours Southern Africa.

    I regret to say that I changed a setting on our website that has now created the error as noted in the subject line.

    I was unable to upload images (kept on receiving an ‘http error’) and when I read up about it in a help forum, someone mentioned that they changed their settings from http to https. I duly went onto settings and changed it, which has resulted in me now being unable to access the WordPress CMS or the live web address.

    I have tried reaching a previous board member who originally set the website up for the organisation, but I have had little success.

    Can anyone please assist or advise what steps I need to take to restore the original website.

    Many thanks,

    Hannelie Millar

    The page I need help with: [log in to see the link]

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
  • George Appiah

    (@gappiah)

    4 years, 7 months ago

    Hello Hannelie,

    So you’ve switched your site to HTTPS, when the site doesn’t support HTTPS (ie it doesn’t have an SSL certificate installed to support HTTPS). Bummer!

    The end result of this is that the site is trying to use an expired certificate for another website on the server (ctrlaltgender.org). Hence the error you’re seeing.

    If you ask me, the real solution is to install an SSL certificate (free, thanks to the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s LetsEncrypt project) and configure HTTPS to work for the site properly.

    But as a temporary solution, you can revert the site back to HTTP by sticking the following into your wp-config.php file: 

    define( 'WP_HOME', 'http://www.pb.org.za' );
define( 'WP_SITEURL', 'http://www.pb.org.za' );

    Note that this is considered a temporary solution to make your site accessible immediately. Remove these two lines after you’ve installed an SSL certificate for this site and confirmed HTTPS to be working.

    If you have no plans to ever install an SSL certificate and have HTTPS working, kindly take a look at this documentation page for more permanent approaches to change the site’s URL from HTTPS to HTTP: https://wordpress.org/support/article/changing-the-site-url/

    Good luck 😀

    Thread Starter pbadministrator

    (@pbadministrator)

    4 years, 7 months ago

    Hi George,

    Thanks so much for the detailed guideline and advice!

    What happens if I don’t have the wp-config.php file?

    The person who set the website up originally is not longer with the organisation, and after numerous attempts to contact her to ask for help to restore the site, I’ve had no response from her. I suspect the wp-config.php is on her pc….

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
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