You have already purchased your new certificate. You’ve generated it, given it a Common Name, and selected your method of domain validation to be email-based. Great! So, why isn’t the email coming to your inbox? Here are some of the top reasons that could be causing a delay in the email-based authentication process:

Issue #1: The Incorrect Email is Selected

The most common issue we see regarding email-based authentication, is that the incorrect email address is selected during the generation process. Many people don’t realize that the Certificate Authorities (Comodo, Symantec, DigiCert, etc.) can only send validation emails to a list of pre-approved addresses. These addresses are:

• admin@domain.com
• administrator@domain.com
• webmaster@domain.com
• hostmaster@domain.com
• postmaster@domain.com

In some cases, these email addresses may not be available to use, or may be set up as an outbound address. An easy solution to this would be to update your domain’s WHO.IS listing to publicly reflect a working email address. Insert The Certificate Authorities will be able to update the order, and send the email out to that new address.

You can visit https://who.is  to view the current listing for your domain. To update your domain’s listing, you will need to reach out to your hosting provider.

Issue #2: Firewall in Place

You know you can receive emails to one of the pre-approved email addresses that are mentioned above, so why are you still not receiving the email? It could be a firewall set up in your Inbox that does not allow you to receive emails from certain domains.

The solution to this would be to log into your inbox, and white-list the domains you would be receiving the domain-validation emails from (@Comodo.com, @Digicert.com, @Certum.com).

Issue #3: Resend DCV Button Not Working

If you know you can receive the domain-validation email, but for some reason you have not received it, you can re-send the DCV e-mail by selecting the “Re-send DCV Email” button at the bottom of your order page.

Unfortunately, delays are a major part of this industry, and we encounter them frequently. If you have tried all the above solutions and still havent received the DCV e-mail, reach out and let us know.

In most cases, we are able to reach out to the Certificate Authority, and have a representative manually send the domain-validation email to you. This solution can also assist us in providing the best service possible, by allowing us to find these delays quickly, and having the Certificate Authority fixing the issue. By informing us of this issue, you will be helping us provide better service to all.

If you have any questions, or need assistance with any part of validation, feel free to contact us!