---
title: "Virtual hosts overlap on 443, the first has precedence"
url: "https://bosnadev.com/2014/12/04/virtual-hosts-overlap-443-first-precedence"
author: "Mirza Pašić"
date: "2014-12-04"
topic: "Server administration"
tags: ["apache", "ssl", "virtual-hosts"]
summary: "Fixing the Apache 2 warning that virtual hosts overlap on port 443 after enabling SSL on several domains: add NameVirtualHost *:443 to ports.conf."
---
# Virtual hosts overlap on 443, the first has precedence
> Outdated: Written for Apache 2.2 in 2014. Since Apache 2.4, NameVirtualHost has no effect.
[](https://bosnadev.com/img/2014-12-apache-logo.webp)Today I got strange error on my production server when I tried to enable SSL on three domains. Since I use ISPConfig as hosting control panel I assumed it will work without problems. But I was wrong. I did little bit of research on this topic, and I found a simple solution.
If you look at _**/etc/apache2/ports.conf**_ file, you will see:
```apache title="/etc/apache2/ports.conf"
NameVirtualHost *:80
Listen 80
```
This way Apache knows which virtual host to serve based on the different host names. And it works fine for *:80 port. But, for 443 port it’s disabled, so you need to update _**ports.conf**_ as follows to make it work:
```apache title="/etc/apache2/ports.conf"
NameVirtualHost *:443
Listen 443
```
Make sure to restart Apache and it will work fine.
I hope this tip will save you some time.
#### Resources
More about Apache2 virtual hosts you can learn [here]( "Apache2 Virtual Hosts"). Other useful links I found while I was looking for solution:
[Apache error: _default_ virtualhost overlap on port 443]( " Apache error: _default_ virtualhost overlap on port 443")
[Virtual hosts overlap on 443, first has precedence]( "Virtual hosts overlap on 443, first has precedence")
VirtualHost Overlap on Port 443