What’s New

The global SSL/TLS industry has introduced an important change that affects all website owners using SSL certificates for HTTPS encryption.

Starting 24 February 2026, newly issued public SSL certificates will have a maximum validity period of 199 days, replacing the previous limit of 397 days. This policy applies to all certificate types, including DV (Domain Validation), OV (Organization Validation), and EV (Extended Validation) certificates, as well as wildcard certificates and multi-domain SSL certificates.

This change is part of an industry initiative led by browser vendors and certificate authorities to strengthen SSL encryption security across the internet.

Why SSL Certificate Validity Is Reduced to 199 Days

Shorter certificate lifetimes help improve overall internet security by ensuring certificates are renewed and validated more frequently. This reduces the risk of outdated cryptography and limits the impact of compromised certificates.

Major SSL certificate providers such as DigiCert, Sectigo, and GlobalSign have adopted this change in accordance with industry standards.

For website owners, this means that SSL certificates used to enable HTTPS encryption will need to be renewed approximately every 6 to 7 months.

Which SSL Certificates Are Affected?

The new 199-day validity rule applies to all commonly used SSL certificate types, including:

• DV SSL certificates for basic domain validation
• OV SSL certificates for business identity verification
• EV SSL certificates for extended validation and highest trust level
• Wildcard SSL certificates securing unlimited subdomains
• Multi-domain SSL certificates (SAN certificates) protecting multiple websites

If you currently buy SSL certificates for your websites, you may notice that certificate renewal cycles will become more frequent under the new policy.

What This Means for Website Owners

Website administrators and businesses should be prepared to manage SSL certificates more actively. With shorter validity periods, it becomes increasingly important to ensure timely renewal to avoid service interruptions or security warnings in browsers.

Proper SSL certificate management helps ensure that your website continues to deliver secure HTTPS connections, protecting user data and maintaining visitor trust.

How Nethub Can Help

Nethub provides a full range of SSL certificate solutions to help businesses secure their websites and manage certificate lifecycles efficiently.

Our services include:

• Assistance to buy SSL certificates from trusted providers
• Support for DV, OV, and EV certificates
• Wildcard SSL certificates for unlimited subdomains
• Multi-domain SSL certificates for multiple websites
• SSL installation and configuration support
• Renewal reminders and certificate management assistance

We work with leading certificate authorities such as DigiCert, Sectigo, and GlobalSign to ensure reliable and secure SSL deployment.

Upcoming SSL Certificate Automation Solution

With the new 199-day SSL certificate validity policy, many organizations may find it more challenging to manage frequent certificate renewals. To help our customers simplify certificate lifecycle management, Nethub is currently developing an SSL certificate automation solution.

This upcoming solution will help automate key processes such as:

• SSL certificate issuance and renewal
• Automatic installation of SSL certificates
• Renewal monitoring and expiration alerts
• Simplified management for multi-domain SSL certificates and wildcard certificates

Our goal is to help businesses maintain uninterrupted HTTPS encryption while reducing the operational effort required to manage DV, OV, and EV certificates.

Further details will be announced soon. Customers who frequently buy SSL certificates or manage multiple domains will benefit greatly from this upcoming automation service.

Need Help with SSL Certificates?

If you have questions about the 199-day SSL certificate validity change, or if you need assistance purchasing or installing SSL certificates for your website, please feel free to contact our customer representative.

We are happy to assist you in keeping your website secure with the latest SSL encryption and HTTPS protection.

Whois-based lookup is a common way for Domain Validation (DV). Certificate Authorities (CA), like DigiCert, use this data to validate domains for issuing certificates. However, it has become unreliable and CA/Browser Forum decided to use more strict DV methods.

Starting from 8 January 2025, DigiCert will stop manual HTTPS web-based Whois lookup to obtain domain contact information for domain validation. And Whois lookup will be no longer supported as a DV method on 8 May 2025.

Customers are recommended to use other methods for DV during application process of SSL Certificate.

Google Chrome will stop trusting TLS Certificates issued by Entrust and AffirmTrust after October 31, 2024. This change will be effective in Chrome 127 and higher.
 
TLS server authentication certificates validating to the following Entrust roots whose earliest Signed Certificate Timestamp (SCT) is dated after October 31, 2024, will no longer be trusted by default.

• CN=Entrust Root Certification Authority – EC1,OU=See www.entrust.net/legal-terms+OU=(c) 2012 Entrust, Inc. – for authorized use only,O=Entrust, Inc.,C=US
• CN=Entrust Root Certification Authority – G2,OU=See www.entrust.net/legal-terms+OU=(c) 2009 Entrust, Inc. – for authorized use only,O=Entrust, Inc.,C=US
• CN=Entrust.net Certification Authority (2048),OU=www.entrust.net/CPS_2048 incorp. by ref. (limits liab.)+OU=(c) 1999 Entrust.net Limited,O=Entrust.net
• CN=Entrust Root Certification Authority,OU=www.entrust.net/CPS is incorporated by reference+OU=(c) 2006 Entrust, Inc.,O=Entrust, Inc.,C=US
• CN=Entrust Root Certification Authority – G4,OU=See www.entrust.net/legal-terms+OU=(c) 2015 Entrust, Inc. – for authorized use only,O=Entrust, Inc.,C=US
• CN=AffirmTrust Commercial,O=AffirmTrust,C=US
• CN=AffirmTrust Networking,O=AffirmTrust,C=US
• CN=AffirmTrust Premium,O=AffirmTrust,C=US
• CN=AffirmTrust Premium ECC,O=AffirmTrust,C=US

Website operators are advised to switch to trusted certificate authority such as Sectigo, DigiCert, GeoTrust, Thawte, RapidSSL & GlobalSign. For more details, please refer to the Google announcement article at https://security.googleblog.com/2024/06/sustaining-digital-certificate-security.html.

To create a cleaner and more user-friendly shopping environment, DigiCert will no longer offer 4-6 years Multi-year Plans starting from 2023-10-31 for SSL/TLS and VMC Certificates. But DigiCert will still offer 1-3 years Multi-year Plan.

Existing customers with purchased 4-6 years Multi-year Plans before 2023-10-31, will retain their coverage as per their plan duration.

When it’s time to renew the SSL Certificate, customers will have the option to renew it as a 1-3 years Multi-year Plan.

Nethub has introduced DigiCert Verified Mark Certificates (VMC) purchasing service, which is the first Hong Kong company to provide such service. VMC can help to improve trust for customers’ emails.

An important update will be implemented by Certificate Authority/Browser (CA/B) Forum on 2023-06-01 to enhance the security of Code Signing Certificates and protect against potential theft by malware.

To fullfil CA/B forum new requirement, starting from 2023-04-23, OV Code Signing Certificates across all SSL brands will no longer support software-based issuance. Instead, the private key and Code Signing Certificates will be securely installed and stored in a compliant USB token or hardware security module (HSM).

Nethub will assist customers to order / renew OV Code Signing Certificates with USB token at that time, so customers do not need to worry about the changes.

Nethub has launched new online shop system – ShopEasy System 3.0, which comes with a more user friendly interface and strengthens the function of search engine optimization. It also supports tablet and mobile version (Responsive Web Design), member system, multiple languages…etc.
To use this online shop system, customers have to apply our hosting plan and pay additional monthly fee HK$120, please contact our customer representative for details.

PHP 8 is now supported by Linux basic web hosting services, commercial web hosting and VPS hosting services of Nethub.

Nethub has introduced High Availability / Disaster Recovery Solution that can ensure the stability and data integrity of the server. For details, please go to here.

Starting from 2020-08-19, all SSL/TLS brands around the world will no longer offer two-year SSL/TLS Certificates. It is because major browsers (including Safari, Chrome, Firefox) will distrust any two-year SSL/TLS Certificate issued after 2020-08-30 due to industry-wide requirement.

As a result, the maximum year term of SSL/TLS Certificate will be only ONE year.

For customers who always purchase or renew SSL/TLS Certificate for 2 years, the impact is they will need to do validation and install SSL/TLS Certificate one time per year, rather than one time per 2 years.

When you purchase or renew the SSL/TLS Certificate, you can still choose to pay 2 years fee. But the year term of SSL/TLS Certificate will be as 1 year + 1 year. On the one hand, you can save admin cost for paying twice in 2 years. On the other hand, it means you will need to do validation and installation for 2 times (1 time per year) in 2 years.

Validation and installation annually will also apply to 3, 4, 5 years purchase / renewal.
3 Years = 1 year + 1 year + 1 year (Validation and installation for 3 times in 3 years)
4 Years = 1 year + 1 year + 1 year + 1 year (Validation and installation for 4 times in 4 years)
5 Years = 1 year + 1 year + 1 year + 1 year + 1 year (Validation and installation for 5 times in 5 years)

We can provide better offer for longer year terms. If you are interested in SSL purchase / renewal for more than 2 years, you can contact us for details.

Nethub has won “The Best of Domain Name & Cloud Hosting” Awards in “e-brand awards for three consecutive years, which gives us great encouragement. Nethub will continue to work hard to provide high quality hosting services to our customers and partners for their affirmation and support.

Comodo CA, one of the world’s largest commercial Certificate Authority (CA) and a leader in network security solutions, today announced that the company is rebranding to Sectigo. The company aims to eliminate brand confusion in the market and better represent the direction of its solutions.

Nethub has once again won “The Best of Domain Name & Cloud Hosting” Awards in “e-brand awards, and we would like to thank our customers and partners for their affirmation and support. We have been greatly encouraged by this award for two consecutive years, Nethub will continue to work hard to provide quality web hosting services to all customers.

Now Nethub introduces the DigiCert SSL certificate and offers a 5% discount to let customers have one more option, for details please go to here.

Nethub has introduced the SSL digital certificate purchasing service since 2015, who has been supported from many customers. Now Nethub introduces the GlobalSign SSL certificate and offers a 10% discount to let customers have one more option, for details please go to here.

“e-zone” is the No.1 Best Consumer Electronics Magazinein Hong Kong, and the “e-brand awards 2017” is organized by the Hong Kong Economic Times. It is one of the largest and most representative IT events in Hong Kong, and widely recognized by the industry. The winning company is jointly elected by the public and the professional jury, which includes industry leaders, professional associations, academic experts and media editors.

Nethub has awarded the “The Best of Domain Name & Cloud Hosting”, and we would like to thank our customers and partners for their affirmation and support.

For more information on the e-brand awards, please visit the e-zone website http://ebrandawards.hk/.

Nethub has launched DIY website system 2.0, which supports tablet, ipad, mobile version, and it is more beautiful, installing this website system costs additional monthly fee HK$60 only, please contact our customer representative for details.

Nethub has renamed Personal Web Hosting as Basic Web Hosting, and has upgraded basic web hosting plans and commercial web hosting plans greatly. Now the storage and monthly traffic are 50GB-2000GB, email accounts are 10-500, which can support small business to enterprise’s usage.

PHP 7.0 has been released since 3 Dec 2015 and Nethub supports it by commercial web hosting and VPS hosting services since 13 Dec 2015, and now we support it in basic web hosting services as well.

Nethub has launched new online shop system 2.0, which supports tablet, ipad, mobile version, also supports coupon, slideshow, product comparison…etc., installing this online shop system costs additional monthly fee HK$120 only, please contact our customer representative for details.

To provide diversified and scalable virtualization solutions, Nethub now offers Hyper-V Windows VPS servers addition to Odin Virtuozzo Windows VPS and OpenVZ Linux VPS, which provide customers with more options in VPS products.

On 3rd Dec 2015 the PHP development team announces the immediate availability of PHP 7.0.0. Nethub as an official Hong Kong mirror site of PHP.NET now supports PHP 7 by commercial web hosting and VPS hosting services, which is the first web hosting provider supporting PHP 7 in Hong Kong.

This release marks the start of the new major PHP 7 series, PHP 7.0.0 comes with a new version of the Zend Engine, numerous improvements and new features such as

• Improved performance: PHP 7 is up to twice as fast as PHP 5.6
• Significantly reduced memory usage
• Abstract Syntax Tree (AST)
• Consistent 64-bit support
• Improved Exception hierarchy
• Many fatal errors converted to Exceptions
• Secure random number generator
• Removed old and unsupported SAPIs and extensions
• The null coalescing operator (??)
• Return and Scalar Type Declarations
• Anonymous Classes
• Zero cost asserts

Nethub has introduced comprehensive portfolio of SSL digital Certificates purchasing services, up to 10% off discounts. The SSL certificate authority brands we offer covers 65% of worldwide SSL websites, including Symantec SSL, Geotrust SSL, Thawte SSL, RapidSSL, Comodo SSL certificates, which are more than 40 types of SSL.

SSL is security technology to encrypt connection, using SSL provides greater security than an unencrypted web connection. It reduces the risk that information might be intercepted and misused by a third party. Many site visitors feel more comfortable sharing payment and other personal information when they know they’re using an SSL connection.

In addition Google also announced starting to use HTTPS as a ranking signal on 6th August, 2014, it means that using SSL may also improve ranking of a website in search engines.

Nethub has become an official mirror server of MariaDB which is the first mirror in Hong Kong.

In 2008 Oracle acquired MySQL, after several years Oracle is making MySQL a more closed software project, so that many corporation replaced MySQL with MariaDB.

MariaDB is a community-developed fork of the MySQL intended to remain free under the GNU GPL, the intent is also to maintain high compatibility with MySQL, ensuring a “drop-in” replacement capability.

SSD (Solid State Drive) provides super fast response time and extremely fast random read/write speed, it makes that VPS reboot needs 7 seconds only. Monthly fee is only HK$230, please contact our customer representative for details.

Linux VPS Plans have all been upgraded, storage and memory are significantly increased, and 2 advanced plans are added for more customers’ need, maximum configuration provides 1000GB harddisk and 16GB memory, please contact our customer representative for details.

Nethub has reduced the pricing of .hk domains as low as HK$160/year, please contact our customer representative for details.

Nethub has launched new online shop system, provide new online shop function such as coupon, slideshow, product comparison…etc., installing this online shop system costs one time charge HK$800 only, please contact our customer representative for details.

To meet beginner’s needs, Nethub has launched new web site system, no additional monthly fee, you can build a web site by paying HK$500, please contact our customer representative for details.

Happy Lunar New Year & wishing you great success in the new year! During Lunar New Year holiday, Nethub will be closed as shown below:

Lunar New Year Holiday : 3 Feb 2011 (Thursday) to 7 Feb 2011 (Monday)

The operation will be resumed on 8 Feb 2011 (Tuesday).

To meet market’s demand, Nethub has launched online shop system, no additional monthly fee, you can build an online shop by paying HK$800, please contact our customer representative for details..

Now buying any VPS plan 4 (Windows 2003 / 2008 or Linux) and prepay 1 year, you can get 50% off for half year! Limited offer, a limited number of miss the chance.

Windows 2008 VPS server hardware has 2 Intel Qual-Core CPU with 24GB RAM, which let every VPS customer enjoy an efficient Windows 2008 server.

PHP is a widely used, general-purpose scripting language that was designed for web development to produce dynamic web pages, it is open source and easy to learn. With fast and stable server and data center, Nethub Online has become an official Hong Kong mirror site of PHP.NET, official website address is http://hk1.php.net.

To promote .asia domain, now DotAsia will be offering 2GB USB Memory Stick for free, it just requires new .asia registration with minimum 2 years, please contact our customer representative for details..

In order to let customer has more confidence on our quality web hosting services, now customer can request to activate the hosting services to use first, and pays after satisfaction of our services.

Application procedures: Complete the online application form and submit the required documents, the service will be activated immediately.
No charge if you do not satisfy: If you have any dissatisfied with our service, you do not need to pay.

Terms:
1. For Hong Kong customer only. Customer fills out online application form and need to mark with “participate in Activation Before Payment special promotional”.
2. Commercial customer has to provide effective Business Registration copy, personal customer has to provide HKID copy.
3. If customer is going to register a new domain name, we will provide a temporary domain for temporarily usage. New domain registration can be completed once customer settles the payment. (Nethub Online Limited does not guarantee the domain can be registered after the payment.)
4. After service is activated, customer has to pay within 15 days, otherwise service will be suspended or cancelled.
5. This promotion is only applicable to web hosting basic plans, VPS server hosting basic plans, value-added services are not applicable.
6. Nethub Online Limited reserves all the final interpretation and decision of this promotional activities.

In order to let more customers experience the high-speed, stability, high quality of commercial web hosting services, from now until 31 October, successful application of any commercial web hosting plan customer who will be immediately get $100 in cash rebate. Grab the golden chance and act now!

Nethub co-operates with HKDNR to provide “Love4.hk” program, in order to encourage Social Enterprises to utilize the prevailing advantages and effectiveness of Internet in promoting their businesses with minimal cost but fruitful return, eligible charitable organization and their subsidiaries, and Social Enterprises can register a .hk domain name, web and email hosting services with first 2-year fees waived.

The target of this promotion is for Social Enterprises and charitable organizations and their subsidiaries, who can benefit from websites with ‘.hk’ domain names that communication will be reinforced in an interactive way while involvement from various social sectors will be strengthened. Through the two years application of .hk domain name and web hosting services, social capital of Social Enterprises is expected to be upgraded, encouraging the participation and interaction of the society.

Promotion until 30 September, 2008, please act now to seize the opportunity to build your Hong Kong online image.

Free services include:
New domain registration fee – .hk / .org.hk / .組織.hk
Free web hosting plan
All plans of basic web hosting Windows platform
All plans of basic web hosting Linux platform
All plans of commercial web hosting Windows platform
All plans of commercial web hosting Linux platform

Interested organizations can download application form and Nomination Letter, fill the forms and fax it at 2622 2302 or email to enquiry@nethub.com.hk.

Nethub Online VPS server hosting services have been launched officially. Powerful server hardware, low price, quality services, which build a highly efficient Virtual Private Server platform, the cost is only $180/month or up, for details please refer to Linux VPS and Windows VPS.

Anti-spam 4 layers filterring services are provided under all web hosting plans of Nethub, which can reduce spam email by 95%-99%.

To meet market’s demand, Nethub has launched WebEasy system, no additional monthly fee, you can build a new websites by paying HK$500, please contact our customer representative for details.

SWsoft, as a leader of system automation, operating system virtualization and desktop virtualization industries, announced the adoption of “Parallels” as the new company name. They also revealed a new marketing strategy – “Optimized Computing”, the new strategic objectives are aimed to provide the industry’s most comprehensive cross-platform virtualization and SAAS (Software as a service) to individual users, business users and service providers.

Step into 2008, Nethub Online will focus online advertising. Nethub Online spends a huge advertising costs, partnership with Yahoo Hong Kong and other well-known online media to promote high quality web hosting services.

Nethub Online choose an IT magazine leader – e-Zone as a long-term partner, the first round of magazine advertisements are published from today in the e-Zone. All customers can get our new information through e-Zone in the future.

Today, Nethub Online passed the Hong Kong Telecommunications Authority approval, be issued PNETS license. Our PNETS license number is: 1377. It firmly established the legitimacy of Nethub Online’s web hosting and other international value-added telecommunications services in Hong Kong.

In order to handle application and other matters of .hk domain name for clients more quickly, Nethub Online officially becomes Hong Kong Domain Name Registration Company Limited (HKDNR) service partner. Now customers can also know latest news of Hong Kong Domain Name Registration Company Limited (HKDNR) through our web site.

Nethub Online web site is online. With Hong Kong’s first introduced free web hosting plan, high quality basic and commercial web hosting plans, we will be able to establish a new generation of web hosting industry in Hong Kong. With “high quality” products and services, we believe that providing web hosting services with heart will be able to get more and more supports from customer.

In order to provide the best quality web hosting services, Nethub Online has not only used Dell Xeon servers, we have also chosen SWsoft’s Plesk products as the server control panel software. In order to provide perfect technical support services, today Nethub Online formally adopted by the SWsoft certification to become SWsoft certified partner.

Today, Nethub Online formally joined the Microsoft Web Hosting Partner program. Microsoft will send the latest developments and technologies to the partners through this cooperation program on a regular basis. By this partnership, we will grasp the latest hosting technology of Windows server to provide users with high-quality, stable services.