Webnames.ca News Center

Hi there,

We're excited to announce the launch of the first ACME-enabled SSL certificates at Webnames.

Beginning today, customers can purchase and deploy selected ACME-compatible SSL subscriptions that automate certificate issuance, validation, renewal, and replacement, helping to simplify SSL management and prepare for the industry's move toward shorter certificate validity periods.

Introducing Certificate Automation

For many years, SSL certificates have largely been managed through a manual process:

• Purchase a certificate
• Complete validation
• Install the certificate
• Track expiration dates
• Renew and reinstall when required

As certificate validity periods continue to decrease, manually managing SSL certificates becomes increasingly time consuming—especially for organizations managing multiple websites, servers, or wildcard certificates.

ACME (Automated Certificate Management Environment) addresses this challenge by allowing supported software to communicate directly with Certificate Authorities and automate much of the certificate lifecycle.

With an ACME-enabled SSL subscription, customers can automate:

• Certificate issuance
• Domain validation
• Certificate renewal
• Certificate replacement

depending on their chosen implementation model.

First Products Available

The first ACME-enabled SSL subscriptions now available through Webnames are:

• PositiveSSL ACME Certificate-as-a-Service (DV)
• Sectigo ACME Certificate-as-a-Service (DV)

These products are designed for customers who want to reduce the operational overhead associated with managing SSL certificates while maintaining the same trusted SSL/TLS encryption used by traditional certificates.

Multiple Deployment Options

Our ACME documentation and implementation guides currently support several common deployment models, including:

Webnames Plesk Hosting

Customers using Webnames Plesk Hosting can leverage Plesk's built-in ACME capabilities for a highly automated experience.

Read More

Webnames DNS Hosting

Customers using Webnames DNS Hosting can automate DNS-based validation using supported ACME clients and DNS automation tools.

Read More

Third-Party DNS Providers

Customers using providers such as:

• Cloudflare
• Amazon Route 53
• Azure DNS
• Google Cloud DNS

can integrate their existing DNS platforms into an ACME workflow.

Read More

Manual DNS Validation

Customers who are not yet ready for DNS automation can still use ACME with manual DNS validation.

Read More

More ACME Products Coming Soon

This launch represents the first phase of Webnames' ACME rollout.

Additional ACME-enabled offerings from:

• RapidSSL
• GeoTrust
• DigiCert
• Thawte

are currently in various stages of development, testing, and rollout.

We expect additional product availability throughout the remainder of 2026 as participating Certificate Authorities continue expanding their ACME offerings.

Getting Started

New customers can begin by reviewing our ACME documentation and selecting the deployment guide that best matches their environment.

Whether you're securing a single website, deploying wildcard certificates, or managing certificates across multiple servers, ACME offers a path toward more scalable and automated SSL management.

See: Getting Started with ACME SSL

We’re excited to announce the launch of our newly modernized Email Administration interface—an important milestone in the ongoing evolution of the Webnames customer experience.

Our previous email administration portal was our oldest user interface. While new functionality had been added over time, its underlying design dated back to the early 2000s and operated as a standalone system at mailadmin.webnames.ca. With this update, email management is now fully integrated directly into your Webnames account, providing a more seamless, secure, and consistent experience.

The new interface is accessed directly from the Email Management tab in your Webnames account using the Manage button. From here, customers can perform all the same tasks they could previously—now within a modernized and more intuitive layout that aligns with the rest of the Webnames platform.

What you can manage in the new interface

The new Email Administration experience offers full feature parity with the previous portal, including:

• Creation and management of individual email accounts, including password changes and email forwarding
• Setup and management of email aliases
• Setup and management of email distribution groups
• Configuration of domain‑wide email routing rules
• Management of SPF, DKIM, and DMARC email authentication settings
• Administration of user access for email management at the domain level

Improved access delegation with Dedicated User Roles

Because the previous portal was a standalone system, it allowed customers to delegate email administration simply by sharing separate portal credentials. With email management now integrated into Webnames accounts, we’ve introduced a new dedicated user access role.

This role allows the primary Webnames account holder to grant other users permission to manage email—and only email—for specific domains. This provides the same delegation flexibility as before, while improving overall security and access control within the Webnames platform.

This update represents a significant modernization of a long‑standing service and lays the groundwork for future improvements. As always, we welcome your feedback and look forward to continuing to enhance your experience.

Hi there,

We’re pleased to announce an upgrade to Webnames’ Email Forwarding feature that delivers a clearer and more reliable email experience.

What’s Changing

We are transitioning from the older “Send on Behalf Of…” method to “Keep the Original Sender Address” (also known as Redirect).

Thanks to improvements in our mail platform’s SRS (Sender Rewriting Scheme) handling, forwarded messages can now maintain the original sender’s information while remaining compatible with modern email authentication standards.

What This Means for You

See the Real Sender

Forwarded messages will now display the actual sender, making messages easier to understand and more consistent across inboxes.

Replies Go to the Right Place

Replying will send responses directly to the original sender, removing confusion and unnecessary routing.

Better Deliverability

Enhanced SRS handling improves authentication alignment, helping forwarded mail reach inboxes more reliably at providers like Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace.

No Action Required

Your existing forwarding settings will continue working automatically with this enhancement.

Webnames remains committed to improving the reliability and quality of your email services. If you have questions, our support team is here to help.

Hi there,

We are simplifying our auto‑renewal process. For services paid by credit card, the first renewal attempt will now occur two weeks before the expiry date instead of four weeks. You will still receive advance notice and multiple payment attempts to ensure uninterrupted service.

New Auto‑Renewal Timeline (Credit Card Payments)

• 3 weeks before expiry – Invoice and renewal notice sent (no payment yet).
• 2 weeks before expiry – First payment attempt and renewal.
• 1 week before expiry – Second attempt if needed.
• 2 days before expiry – Additional attempt if needed.
• 1 day before expiry – Additional attempt if needed.
• On expiry day – Final attempt.

Cheque‑Based Auto‑Renewals

For customers who pay by cheque, we will continue using the original renewal timeline (first notice at 5 weeks prior). This ensures there is sufficient time for signatures, mailing, and processing through the postal system.

This update reduces unnecessary early billing attempts while preserving a clear and predictable renewal process. If you have questions or need assistance updating your billing information, our support team is here to help.

Hi there,

We’re excited to announce the launch of our new DKIM Management Tool, now available in your Webnames.ca account!

This self-serve feature makes it easy to:

• ✅ Enable or disable DKIM signing
• 🔐 Rotate DKIM keys every 180 days
• 🛠 Automatically apply DNS records (or copy/paste for third-party DNS)

Once enabled, the tool verifies your DNS setup and activates DKIM signing automatically — helping protect your domain, improve deliverability, and support DMARC compliance.

Please see the following help article for more information

Hi there,

We are happy to announce the availability of our new API!

The Webnames.ca API is built for enterprise teams that need robust, secure, and scalable domain and DNS management. Whether you're managing a large domain portfolio, automating SSL provisioning, or integrating with internal systems, the API delivers the flexibility and control you need.

🔐 Key Features

• Automated Domain Lifecycle Management Renew and manage domains across hundreds of TLDs—programmatically and at scale.
• Advanced DNS Control Full support for real-time DNS record management, including A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, TXT, and SRV records—ideal for dynamic infrastructure and service integrations.
• ACME-Compatible DNS Automation Easily integrate with SSL providers like Let’s Encrypt using DNS-01 challenges. Automate certificate issuance and renewal with secure, scriptable workflows.
• Secure, Token-Based Authentication Enterprise-grade security with scoped API tokens and audit-friendly, role-based access control.

Any customer can gain the ability to use the API by acquiring our Domain and Account Management Toolkit, and creating an appropriate API user via the included multi-user feature.

API documentation is available here.

Hey there,

As part of our 2025 Mail Admin overhaul, our first new feature is Domain-wide email rules! 🙌.

Now, as an Webnames.ca customer, you can create and manage email rules that apply to all email accounts. These work in conjunction with the account-based rules that can be created by each user via webmail.

Protect your organization with SPF and DKIM checks, header field analysis, and more, then define custom actions to suit your business.

Check out this new feature on the Email services tab of your domain today!

Hi there,

We have recently deployed a change to to prevent our customers from choosing passwords that have been exposed in previous data breaches at other third parties across the Internet.

The well-known security organization Have I Been Pwned regularly trawls the dark web and catalogs public breaches of sensitive user data and passwords. The NIST and other security organizations recommend that users not select passwords that have been previously breached. This makes credential stuffing and brute force attacks more difficult and keeps accounts even more secure.

For more information on these password checks, please visit https://haveibeenpwned.com/Passwords

Hey there,

Our Renewal Dashboard has been updated 🙌.

By enhancing our existing Recurring Payments page, customers are now able perform manual renewals on any product within their account from one central location. This page always had the advantage of providing a bird's eye view of everything within an account, however previously only auto-renew settings changes could be perform on this page.

Now keeping track of things, and renewing has never been easier.

We hope you find value in this recent update!

Cheers,

The Webnames Team

We now support PHP up to version 8.3.14.

For stability and compatibility reasons, we don't automatically update existing customer websites to newer version of PHP, however this can be done easily via our support team, or by adding the following line to your website's .htaccess file:

AddHandler application/x-httpd-php83 .php