Symantec has announced that the SSL Certificates will support WWW and non-WWW domain names. It will be considered as a single FQDN (Full Qualified Domain Name). Symantec has taken this wise step to mitigate the gap between its partners and customers. The authority will provide security on both FQDNs in a single price certificate.
The base domain will be counted as a Free SAN means Symantec will directly add the Free SAN to the SSL certificate. Therefore, customers will be issued SSL certificate along with already included free SAN that will reduce multiple certificate management cost and time of your website.
For Example:
The website owner can secure both www.yoursite.com and yoursite.com with a single Symantec SSL certificate.
Three Different Scenarios for WWW and non-WWW:
Symantec has revealed about three scenarios for supporting WWW and non-WWW domain names. Remember, there should be a valid TLD need to add “www” to the common name’s domain as a SAN.
When common name is www.yoursite.com:
When the website owner would like to sign up with Common Name as www.yoursite.com, the Symantec SSL certificate will automatically protect and adds the non-www version of the same domain (yoursite.com) as a SAN for free and it will not count as part of the max # of allowed SAN.
| TLD Domain Types | Example of Domain Names | Add base domain as a SAN value? |
| 1‐level TLD (such as a gTLD) | www.yoursite.com | Yes- add yoursite.com |
| 1‐level TLD (such as a gTLD) | www.subdomain.yoursite.com | No |
| 2‐level TLD (such as a ccTLD) | www.yoursite.co.uk | Yes-add yoursite.co.uk |
| 2‐level TLD (such as a ccTLD) | www.subdomain.yoursite.co.uk | NO |
| Internal host/IP | server.local | NO |
NOTE: All the common names begin with WWW and non-WWW will not include their sub domains.
When common name is yoursite.com:
When the website owner would like to sign up with Common Name as yoursite.com, Symantec SSL certificate will automatically add www.yoursite.com as a free SAN and it will not count as part of the max # of allowed SAN.
| TLD Domain Types | Example of Domain Names | Add base domain as a SAN value? |
| 1‐level TLD (such as a gTLD) | yoursite.com | Yes- add www.yoursite.com |
| 1‐level TLD (such as a gTLD) | www.subdomain.yoursite.com | No |
| 2‐level TLD (such as a ccTLD) | yoursite.co.uk | Yes-add www.yoursite.co.uk |
| 2‐level TLD (such as a ccTLD) | www.subdomain.yoursite.co.uk | NO |
| Internal host/IP | server.local | NO |
NOTE: All the common names begin with WWW and non-WWW will not include their sub domains.
When common name is *.yoursite.com:
In case of a wildcard certificate: When the website owner would like to sign up with Common Name that is *.yoursite.com, Symantec SSL certificate will automatically add yoursite.com as a free SAN and it will not count as part of the max # of allowed SAN.
| TLD Domain Types | Example of Domain Names | Add base domain as a SAN value? |
| 1‐level TLD (such as a gTLD) | *.yoursite.com | Yes- add yoursite.com |
| 1‐level TLD (such as a gTLD) | *.subdomain.yoursite.com | No |
| 2‐level TLD (such as a ccTLD) | *.yoursite.co.uk | Yes-add yoursite.co.uk |
| 2‐level TLD (such as a ccTLD) | *.subdomain.yoursite.co.uk | NO |
| Internal host/IP | *.server.local | NO |
NOTE: All the common names begin with WWW and non-WWW will not include their sub domains.
Product to be Counted:
Below is a list of products from Symantec, GeoTrust, and Thawte that will benefit from this announcement.
| Symantec | Thawte | GeoTrust |
| Secure Site Pro with EV | SSL WebServer with EV | True BusinessID with EV |
| Secure Site with EV | SGC Supercerts | True BusinessID |
| Secure Site Pro | SSL Web Server | – |
| Secure Site Wildcard | SSL Web Server Wildcard | True BusinessID Wildcard |
| Secure Site SSL | SSL123 (DV But Allow) | – |
GeoTrust and RapidSSL already support Free SAN, you need to issue certificates on www.yoursite.com that secures yoursite.com, but from now you will get the certificate on yoursite.com that will add free SAN as a www.yoursite.com
