[GNC] Temporary Website URL

[Robert Heller]

At Sat, 18 Mar 2023 06:04:52 -0700 Brad Morrison <bradmorrison at sonic.net> wrote:

> 
> Thanks for point these situations out Ken! The reason I joined the 
> GnuCash-User mailing lists was because I sent a link to an acquaintance 
> that does bookkeeping professionally and he texted back that the website 
> was down, he then did a Google search and tried the GnuCash result on 
> his own and that link didn't work either, and he then goes on to tell me 
> that this is why he doesn't trust open source projects with his business 
> or his clients' business. It was pretty embarrassing for me and I have 
> hesitated to refer any possibly interested professionals that I meet to 
> GnuCash since.
> 
> I can confirm the certificate error for website #1. It looks like 
> gnucash.org uses Let's Encrypt (https://letsencrypt.org/) as the 
> certificate authority and the certificate was valid from December 12, 
> 2022 until March 11, 2023. My understanding was that Let's Encrypt was 
> free, so that might mean that it just has to be renewed/reauthorized...?

Let's Encrypt uses a program "certbot" which is supposed to automagically 
renew the certificate.  It does try to verify the domain it is for by visiting 
the website.  Since there was a webserver config problem (the redirect config 
was broken), it is likely that the automagical renewal failed...

> 
> I can confirm that website #2 still lists the "Apache2 Ubuntu Default 
> Page" error for the non-https/secure gnucash website. I believe that 
> John mentioned that Linas upgraded his server in January and that broke 
> this feature and it has not been fixed since.
> 

Yes, this webserver config error needs to be fixed.  Once it is fixed, the 
Let's Encrypt certbot program will be able to renew the certificate, which 
will fix the https://www.gnucash.org error.

> I also see Gnucash website #3 as working well. I can see that that 
> website also uses Let's Encrypt as the certificate authority and that 
> certificate is valid from March 5, 2023 until June 3, 2023.
> 
> I also noticed that website #1 & #2 has 2 "Subject Alt Names" 
> (gnucash.org & www.gnucash.org) on that certificate, while website #3 
> has just 1 (code.gnucash.org).

Yes, this is a "normal" thing.  Almost all www.xxx.yyy hostnames refer to the 
same logical host as xxx.yyy -- eg while commonly normal websites start with 
www, most also work without the 'www.'.

> 
> After briefly reading a few of the mailing list messages on US 
> banks/credit unions that are not allowing their transaction to be 
> downloaded/available in an open format, I have also wanted to start 
> emailing various financial institutions about whether they intend to 
> make such a format available. I would still need to further review the 
> formatting situation described in the email chains before I start asking 
> around and then opening an account at such a financial institution, but 
> if the main GnuCash website still doesn't work, it is hard to write such 
> emails at all.
> 
> Brad
> 
> 
> On 3/17/23 11:00, Ken Pyzik wrote:
> > So checking websites statuses today:
> >
> > https://www.gnucash.org  - privacy/certificate error
> > http://www.gnucash.org  - Default appache2 page
> > https://code.gnucash.org/website  - working perfectly.
> >
> > As noted - this has been an issue since 11 February.  The https:// was working at one point a couple of weeks ago -- but now it is not.
> >
> > FYI -- Ken
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: gnucash-user<gnucash-user-bounces+pyz01=outlook.com at gnucash.org>  On Behalf Of John Ralls
> > Sent: Sunday, February 19, 2023 3:40 PM
> > To:gnucash-announce at lists.gnucash.org
> > Cc: gnucash-devel<gnucash-devel at gnucash.org>; Gnucash Users<gnucash-user at gnucash.org>
> > Subject: [GNC] Temporary Website URL
> >
> > As most everyone already knowswww.gnucash.org  has been offline since 11 February because Linas Vepstas lost internet access and his ISP, Grande Networks in Austin, TX, has not fixed it.
> >
> > To provide replacement service until Linas gets back online we've set up an alternate site,https://code.gnucash.org/website/.
> >
> > Regards,
> > John Ralls
> >
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>                                                                                
> 

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