For my purposes I have determined that using multistore for my overall project is not the best solution - just too many stores to manage in multistore.  Therefore I will be replicating the master site for other users within my network.  I do have some extensions - both free and bought that will be needed in the new sites.

My question (concern) is how to manage the license files for each of the new sites.  Each additional site should be considered to be a totally standalone installation.   BUT I want to use all the setups, configurations etc that I have in the master.

What do you suggest is the easiest, fastest way to replicate a master site to a new standalone domain and not violate any licensing?  I do understand that I will need to purchase multiple extension licenses, and am not seeking to "re-use" an extension.

I am seeking guidance in advance of testing in hopes that it will shorten the process.  Thank you for whatever guidance you can provide.

Lee

Yes, the cert treats each as individual domains - with the www  is one,  without the www is another. Choose either one you want for your cert, you will be able to redirect or use rewrite to take make it transparent to your visitors.
 Clearly, you want visitors to be able to use an SSL connection whether they visit example.com or www.example.com. To enable this functionality, you can use Apache rewrite rules in a custom .htaccess file. 

 The following lines demonstrate how to redirect visitors who enter a domain name without the www prefix to a secure connection. With these settings enabled on your web site, visitors who go to example.com or www.example.com (where example.com represents your domain) both obtain an SSL connection:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} on 
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\. 
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://www.%{HTTP_HOST}/$1 [R=301,L] 

A CSR or Certificate Signing request is a block of encrypted text that is generated on the server that the certificate will be used on. It contains information that will be included in your certificate such as your organization name, common name (domain name), locality, and country. It also contains the public key that will be included in your certificate. A private key is usually created at the same time that you create the CSR.

The issuing entity will use a CSR to create your SSL certificate, but it does not need your private key. You need to keep your private key secret. What is a CSR and private key good for if someone else can potentially read your communications? The certificate created with a particular CSR will only work with the private key that was generated with it. So if you lose the private key, the certificate will no longer work.

As to the size - 2048 should be more than adequate - the size here is referring to the amount of encryption offered by the
SSL and therefore is your decision for the security level - here's some info: The bit-length of a CSR and private key pair determine how easily the key can be cracked using brute force methods. A key size of 512 bits is considered weak and could potentially be broken in a few months or less with enough computing power. If a private key is broken, all the connections initiated with it would be exposed to whomever had the key. A bit-length of 1024 is exponentially stronger, however, it is more and more likely to be broken as computing power increases. The Extended Validation guidelines that SSL certificate providers are required to follow require that all EV  certificates use a 2048-bit key size to ensure their security well into  the future. Because of this, most providers encourage 2048-bit keys on  all certificates whether they are EV or not.

Hope this helps.
Lee

In reply to #3 -  I did not receive any cert notification when going to your site  on Firefox, Chrome or IE.  So you're probably okay there.

I will tell you that I found your teal colored block more "scary" than a change in the url.  That may just be me.  It didn't make enough sense to me, and I thought - what's the deal here with that notification of a secure server?"  Again just my reaction.  Truthfully,  I didn't even notice the change in url 

IMO,  I would suggest one of three actions:
1.  Bite the bullet and go for the $49/yr if you want to put forth the most professional solution.
2.  Leave it the way you have it with the shared SSL, and change your teal box to something a bit more informative like "All your purchase activity is on our secure server"  or something like that.
3.  If your Authorize.net is handling the security (that means you are transferred to their site prior to entering the card number) and you don't want to do suggestion 1 or 2,  it would remove the SSL

Again,  this is just my opinion -

PS,  The $2.00 a month is not for a dedicated server but for a dedicated IP address. 

I did notice that field was truncating for the Express line.  I am sorry I don't know how to adjust this.  One of the Abantecart Admins will need to assist in this.
It needs to be larger or perhaps a wrap on the text line.

Lee

I think perhaps you are missing that there are two places in Abantecart for Free Shipping

One is in the Extensions  > Shipping, then Free shipping.  You turn on that extension and put the dollar amount in and it applies to an entire order.  No coupon needed.

The other way is with Free Shipping Coupon - there you can apply it to specific items or you can set up for a dollar amount for the total and it will need a code which customer inputs at checkout screen.

Nice site by the way.  Seems your offer is Free shipping  -  I suggest the Free Shipping Extension would work for you.

In the documentation under the Extensions section, then shipping there are details.

Hi,

Let me just say IMO the Reports section does need some serious enhancement - including the ability to print a report once we get some meaningful reports     Overall the reports section is very underdeveloped.

But let me share that I did acquire a semi-helpful extension called  Admins Grid Export, it's inexpensive at 8.99.  It adds in to all the grid displays and lets you make a fast export to a spreadsheet.  For me that was a big help.

One caution -  the extension needs some updating also and I did write Algozone about it -  the description says:

"This extension offer simple export of data from any grid in control panel to MS Excel document format. Simply build the data in the grid as you need it with sort and filters, and extract data to MS Excel "

But the filter part does NOT work -  in my uses.  Even if you add a filtering it ignores the filter and sends all the info.  But for 9 bucks it still says me a lot of time.  And I have hope that it will be improved.

FYI, my reports do work,  but you have to put the date range in of the invoice date in order to see any reporting.  But even when you get something reported it is glumped together so it totals sales figure for a day,  or week or whatever period you define in the query. 

Lee

I believe you are asking about the slide show that shows up in the upper part of the html5 template. 

You manage these in Design > Banner Manager  Tab   that will get you to the list of the banners -  The Sliders on the original template are titled "Main Page Banners".  and they are TEXT Banners . Select edit of one and you can change what is there now. 

The other banners marked Graphics banners are for the four boxes at the bottom That start out with BANNER in the box.  You edit them in the same place,  BUT they are graphics so you need to use a pic. 

Note:  it will come up showing Source in the editor box,  if you want to see what it looks like just click on the Source and it will change to the normal view that is on the webpage.

You can also add new banners - by clicking on the Plus Sign on the far right side of the Header that says Banner List

Hope this helps.
Lee

PS  This is a very full-featured cart solution and it seems to get better every day.  But the learning curve is a bit of a challenge. Just keep at it.

This is going to be a longer answer than you expected -  but I believe knowledge is power -  at least a path to understanding to help make a good decision.

 Encryption manager that is on Abantecart is server side encryption.  The data on the server is encrypted, not the transmission of the data.  I have not explored the functionality of Abantecart Data encryption.  Encrypting the data is not a level of security that I think I need in my cart operations as I pass communication of critical info to the payment gateway servers. 
SSL is client side encryption – the data is transmitted over an encrypted connection.
This will be a very simplistic explanation but I think it will help clarify the process for you hopefully. Hope you’re familiar with the old Buck Rogers decoder ring – encryption is like that.  Both ends of a message have the same set of instructions.  If you’re not privy to the specific set of instructions understanding the message won’t be easy (not impossible).
Now think of a cord being plugged into a receptacle – one must align prongs with the holes in order to obtain connection – that’s the SL (socket layer) of SSL.  The first S is for Secure and that’s the encryption part.
So the SSL (secure socket layer) means that a user someplace is connecting to your server over a “cord” that is aligned (plugged in) and both ends has the decoder ring instructions.  The intent is to make it more difficult for someone “listening in” to understand the conversation because they don’t have the decoder ring instructions.  Now there are various levels of encryptions – I am sure you’ve seen 256 and 428 expressed.  That refers to the bits of encryption level sand the more levels, more difficult to “break the code” More difficult not impossible.
That’s SSL in a very basic description.   Remember SSL is a conversation that takes place to your server and the files are placed in a directory on your server in a location that requires the decoder key. 
I would not think that a standard cart would ever need both of these.  Of the two SSL makes more sense in that you are concerned about customer perceptions of security.
I think the question is not to ask how 100% security would look like (it would unusable and still not 100%) but how much the data is worth to protect and how much damage could be done if the data is exposed. Depending on that analysis you should check how much effort you can afford and what the most likely attack vectors are.  For most of us small-medium size ecommerce vendors not storing credit card information it is usually pretty low.
Hopefully this makes it a bit clearer. 

I would just suggest that you ask specially of your hosting if the SSL cert will cover whatever you cart requirements are. 

Let's say you have mymaindomain.com   and you have it setup to enable a customer to type in www.mymaindomain.com or mymaindomain.com  and they both end up in the same place  (note most setups already so this)   Now if you have your cart setup in a subdomain -  store.mymandomain.com  if you get a cert that covers all of these names you'll be good to go.  There are other solutions,  but that's the easiest to handle.
Just ask you host in specifics if the cert covers all of these names - and give them the names.   
The rewrites are difficult - once you get your SSL figured out,  you can ask Abantecart specifically what to do - it's just a couple of lines of code.