Recently, Google
Chrome announced that they will soon initiate blocking mixed content also called insecure content on web pages.
This feature will be started rolling out from the beginning of December 2019. This should give website owners
enough time to check and fix mixed content errors and fix them before the block
goes live.
Failing to do so will lead to poor user experience, loss of website
traffic, and loss of sales.
Here we will explain about Google Chrome’s mixed content
blocking and ways to get prepared for it.
What is Mixed Content?
Mixed content is actually
a term used to describe non-https content loading on an HTTPS website.
HTTPS is a protocol for websites using a SSL certificate to deliver content. This
technology ensures website security and makes websites more secure by
encrypting the data transfer between a website and end-user’s browser. This means no one can see the data
you send to or fro.
Microsoft, Google, Smartgators,
WordPress.org, WPBeginner, and many other organizations are pushing HTTPs to
use as the standard protocol for websites. The success rate is much more and
around 90% of the chrome users now spend browsing time on HTTPS on all
platforms.
However, there are still huge number of  websites serving partial insecure content over HTTPs websites. This actually means that you link your HTTPS  webpage to a non HTTPS page. Mixed content is actually a loop hole for web security
The conventional process to start website involves following steps
Choose a domain name for your website. You can search domain name on Smartgators portal Purchase a domain name from a this link.
Choose a hosting company to host your website here
Build your website. We can help you for developing your website if you are new for this.
We will set up this for you if you buy domain name from us or you can Contact your registrar to direct the DNS servers to point web requests for content on your site to the server that’s hosting it.
Many hosting companies supply a temporary alias that is added to your domain name so you can work on your site before making it live to the rest of the world. If you don’t have a temporary alias or don’t want to use it, but do need to access your website before contacting your registrar, you can modify the hosts file of your local machine.
A hosts file is a file that all browsers look at when getting a new website request prior to going to their DNS server. When you enter a website in your browser, your computer first looks at the hosts file for information and if it doesn’t find the website there, it requests the ISP’s DNS server to locate the IP address of the site.
Modify the Hosts File on a Windows 8 PC Windows 8 protects the hosts file from modification by malicious programs. To modify it, you must run Notepad as an administrator. Press the Windows key on your keyboard, type Notepad, but do NOT press Enter. Right click on Notepad and choose Run as Administrator.
Log in (or have a someone with admin credentials log in).
Click File > Open.
Navigate to C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc.
In the lower right corner of the Open dialog box, change the Text Documents (*.txt) to All Files.
Modify the Hosts File on a Windows 7 or XP Machine Click on Start > Run > c:. Navigate to c:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc and double click on hosts. Open it with Notepad.
Hosts File
Add the IP address of the server that is hosting your website. Press Tab and add the domain name of your website. Save the hosts file.
Usually system will ask you to ” save as” so the best practice is you can copy the host file on desktop, make the required changes and paste back to C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc
If you are unable to save it due to security policies on your computer, save it with a different name, like hosts2. Close Notepad. Delete the original hosts file and rename hosts2 to hosts. You should be able to access your website (without a temporary alias) from your local machine by entering the domain name in the address bar of your browser. Repeat the above process on any other machines you will be using when creating content for the site prior to making it live.
Modify the Hosts File on a Mac or Linux Open the Terminal app. Type sudo nano /private/etc/hosts. for Mac, sudo nano /etc/hosts for Linux. Enter the IP address and domain name on a new line at the end of the file, as shown above. Save.
