How to force a dedicated SSL using the .htaccess file

Sometimes it's necessary to make sure your website’s visitors use the SSL encrypted connection. If you’re not familiar with SSL and would like to know more please review our article “What is SSL and Why is it important?” If you need assistance using the shared SSL that InMotion Hosting offers to shared hosting customers, please see our article on "forcing your visitors to use the shared ssl".

Forcing visitors to use SSL can be accomplished through your .htaccess file using mod_rewrite. If you’d like more information on mod_rewrite please read our article.

If you are using the Premium Website Builder and need to force your website traffic over SSL, please see the following article instead:
How to force your Premium Website Builder website over SSL

To force all web traffic to use HTTPS insert the following lines of code in the .htaccess file in your website’s root folder:

RewriteEngine On 
RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} 80 
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://www.yourdomain.com/$1 [R,L]

Be sure to replace www.yourdomain.com with your actual domain name.

If you want to force SSL on a specific folder you can insert the code below into a .htaccess file placed in that specific folder:

RewriteEngine On 
RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} 80 
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} folder 
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://www.yourdomain.com/folder/$1 [R,L]

Make sure you change the folder reference to the actual folder name. Then be sure to replace www.yourdomain.com/folder with your actual domain name and folder you want to force the SSL on.

If you need further assistance please feel free to ask a question on our support center website.