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https on thereg

This topic was created by Marco Fontani .

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  1. Marco Fontani
    Boffin

    https on thereg

    Last year, Santa brought a TLS version of The Register (and its sub-domains).

    It's been a long time coming, but as we're a small team it's taken a wee bit longer than expected. It's coming, though! Put down those pitchforks, please :)

    A "top level" overview of what we'll be doing: we'll gradually start linking more things to the https version of the website, then set https as the "canonical" version, then start redirecting http to https, and eventually pretty much everything will be "https only".

    Right now we aren't linking to the https version much, and most non-relative links… link to the http version. That's fine for the moment, as it allows us to test and interact with the https version without breaking much of the functionality for the http version.

    I'm posting this as many people have posted about wanting to help with bringing TLS to The Register. If you're one of them, here's your chance to help!

    How can you help? Type https:// before any of our sub-domains and see if there's anything that breaks particularly hard for you. Report any issue back via email to webmaster@ if you can (be arsed to).

    Look forward to the day we'll be https only, thanks in no small part to you!

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  2. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

    Have done a bit of wandering around and all seems tickety-boo so far. When I tapped in https, the pages reloaded, seemingly with all ads and sidebars intact and the same shape.

    Forum pages worked, and when I upvoted someone, it also worked. With only the hiccup that I got the rude message telling me I was sending data on an insecure connection and was then back on the normal http page. Which I assume is expected behaviour?

    My only concern is the very worrying fact that of all the pages I visited this morning, only one spontaneously was an https page, without me having to type it in. And that was the story on Julian Assange. Is El Reg trying to tell me something...

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  3. Marco Fontani

    With only the hiccup that I got the rude message telling me I was sending data on an insecure connection and was then back on the normal http page. Which I assume is expected behaviour?

    Correct, was expected behaviour then. Right now, if you load forums over https, all links, forms, and the whole "journey" should be https only :)

    We're not yet redirecting, though!

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    1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge
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      OK, the https follows me round the forums. But only sometimes.

      So if when I read your post, I typed the https into the address bar. Then clicked on My posts, and got there in https.

      However, when I clicked on the timestamp of one of my posts, to see if I'd had a reply, I went to the article forum thread in normal http.

      I then went back to my posts and https-ed myself again. Then clicked on the timestamp for my above post - to see if the User Topics forums behaved differently to the article ones. And it doesn't, I also lost my https.

      When I re-ss-ed myself and went back to My posts, I then tried the long way. So clicked on User Topics, El Reg Mattters and so on - and got here all the way in https.

      Preview kept me in https-land.

      I'm now going to hit post and see what happens.

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    2. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge
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      OK. So preview kept me in S-land, but when I hit post I was booted back to plain http.

      Also, when I re-essed myself and upvoted your post, I also went from https to http.

      BTW sorry for not emailing, but I'm on the work PC - so it's a bit of a faff to use the non-work email address - and therefore a lot easier to just reply in the forum.

      Edit: Amusingly hitting edit also keeps me in https land, but I assume when I submit this that I'll be booted back to the land of the insecure.

      Edit 2: I was. Preview and edit keep your S status, submit and votes don't.

      Otherwise I've noticed no errors. I'm in Win 10 on the latest build of Firefox. When I get home I'll have a quick play with the iPad.

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      1. Marco Fontani
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        Indeed, the redirect done after post / preview / edit currently goes to http (as it's currently a hard-wired prefix).

        Soon (Monday) those kinds of redirect will instead be modified to go to https for everybody.

        So… you'll be on http posting your comment, and *bam* you'll be on https – trying to enliven this stuff by causing minimal disruption, but so far things seem smooth as far as I can tell ;)

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        1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge
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          Happy

          I've seen no errors so far. Will have a pay with the iPad later, and see if Safari can cock things up...

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  4. richardcox13

    Link to Forum on Articles

    That comments link at the bottom of links is hardcoded to http. So if reading an article on https, in going to the forums you lose TLS.

    Simplest fix is to make it a protocol relative link – //forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/… – so it inherits the protocol of the article page.

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    1. Marco Fontani
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      Re: Link to Forum on Articles

      That comments link at the bottom of links is hardcoded to http.

      Yup, that will get changed to be hardcoded to https ~next week, about the same time we'll make pretty much everything forums-related be https (other than the apps API).

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      1. DropBear
        Reply Icon

        Re: Link to Forum on Articles

        An http main page request landed me on the https version (so I made sure I'm not dreaming. Repeatedly.) but an article comment link led me back to http; even after manually loading https comments, upvoting threw me back to http again.

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      2. richardcox13
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        Re: Link to Forum on Articles

        > that will get changed to be hardcoded to https ~next wee

        And I see that it has!

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  5. Marco Fontani

    Right now, all forums related should be fully usable over https: things done on forums (post, create topic, edit post) redirect to the https version, all RHS links are to the https version (but not yet articles' forum link, or the overall forums list).

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    1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge
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      Yup, so far. Went to El Reg home, normal http. Clicked on the forums link, and it's been all https gravy ever since. Including preview.

      Will edit to see if this is true on hitting post.

      Yes, post, upvote and edit all keep the https flag flying.

      As do links to article forums, not just the non-article ones.

      This is on the work PC, Win 10 and Firefox. Just got out the iPad (latest Safari) and it also works the same.

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    2. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge
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      Thumb Up

      Just had to test one other thing. Did the downvote button also work the same? Yes. All is tickety-boo for me.

      I should change that downvote to an upvote, but it's funnier not to...

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  6. Marco Fontani

    Just recently, forums link on articles link to the https version of forums, so quite a few more users are getting the https version, and all seems smooth so far.

    Also, the linked-to version for AMP pages and the "mobile size" pages is the https version.

    In time, we'll be switching a few more links to https, but so far… smooth sailing ;)

    Thanks for the help so far!

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