Actually, it was a combination of mistakes. When my hoster moved NOCs, my SSL certificate was apparently installed in a system location to which I don't have access. When it came time to renew the cert., which is normally something I do on my own, the new cert. couldn't be "activated" because remnants of the old cert. were left in that system area. I filled out a help ticket requesting this situation be fixed, and in the process, something critical was apparently deleted, making all SSL access fail.

On a related note, my hoster seems to be quite unfamiliar with cacert.org and how it works. Every six months, I renew my cert, and every six months, my hoster complains about my cert (some unnamed errors they see). I go through an explanation every time, but they still seem unwilling to spend 10 minutes looking into cacert. I think they should be partnering with cacert, rather than complaining about their ignorance of this CA. I hope when all is said and done, I can renew my cert and install it myself without involving my hoster (this is one of the functions of cpanel), so I don't have to keep repeating my story--and I can avoid fiascoes like today.