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SSL

Options for an SSL Certificate

1. If you already have your own SSL certificate, IT will install and host your certificate for $35.

2. Or you can order your SSL certificate through IT for $85. There would still be a $35 installation fee, for a total cost of $110

3. Or you can drop a help desk ticket and request to use IT's shared SSL certificate.

Using our Shared SSL

Simply parse your page like this:

https://server*.islandiatech.com/~username/

where * = your server number

Shared -vs- Dedicated SSL?

Well, the difference is a matter of appearance, if you ask me. But I'm not the expert.

With shared, your visitor's address bar will reflect an address that is not 'originating' from the same site. With dedicated, your visitors will always see your domain name in the address bar of their browser.

Which company would you feel more comfortable completing a transaction with:

https://islandiatech.com/~bill/checkout.php

-or-

https://billusa.com/checkout.php

Other information:

What is SSL?

How does SSL work?

Examples

What is SSL?

Protocols

Information and communication on the Internet travel thru specific protocols, called ports. Here are some examples:

Port 80 is used when you view a web site (http protocol)

Port 25 is used to send email (smtp protocol)

Port 21 is used to upload files to your web site (ftp protocol)

Port 443 is used for sending secured web pages encrypted using the SSL (secured sicket layer) protocol

How do we access these protocols?

Normally, we are not aware that we are using a specific port number. But we indicate the protocol by the URL we enter:

http://www.mysite.com indicates to use the http protocol (port 80)

ftp://ftp.mysite.com indicates to use the ftp protocol (port 21)

https://www.mysite.com indicates to use the SSL protocol (port 443)

What does using SSL do for me?

Operating a secure server (SSL) allows you to conduct e-commerce or other sensitive exchanges of data with your visitors in a way that will hopefuly make them feel more comfortable doing business with you.

SSL provides two basic ingredients of security:

Safe Passage of Information: Your data cannot (we hope) be decoded by any party that might intercept the communications.

Server Authentication: If your server is granted a certificate by a CA (Certificate Authority), your customer's can protect themselves from being directed to another server that is pretending to be yours by checking the contents of the certificate.

How does SSL work?

Unlike displaying a regular web page, when a person requests a secured web page (https://), the browser and the server must go through a series of requests and acknowledgements, which take place automatically. Here is a brief outline of what happens:

You enter a URL such as https://www.mysite.com in your browser window. The https indicates that you want your browser to initiate a secure session with the server

The server responds by sending the site's certificate

The browser checks the certificate information for validity

The browser then creates a session key, which is encrypted with the server's public key, and sends it to the server

The server then decrypts this information using it's private key

Both the browser and server are now using the same secret session key, and the little lock icon will appear on your browser window. All further information sent between the browser and the server will be automatically encrypted, as long as you continue using the https:// protocol.

Examples

Here are some coding examples for implementing secured pages

USING SSL

When the SSL (Secure Socket Layer) feature has been enabled for your account, you can use SSL to encrypt any page on your site. For example, to call a form on your site, you would use the following:

You can SSL encrypt a CGI script while calling it with the following:

https://www.ssl9.com/joeshmoe/cgi-bin/something.pl

You must reference the page through the hostname of the ssl server (the name that is on the digital certificate) or you will receive the "certificate does not maIT error".)

Note, most hostnames must begin with the "www" prefix as in www.ssl9.com

(All links on the page that are being referenced via the "https" protocol must either be "relative" links, or they must start with "https". They should not start with "http". If they do start with "http", the page will show a "this information is not secure" error message.)

Also, if you are referencing a directory with the "https" protocol (for example, you want the "index.html" page to load), you must put a forward slash after the directory name. Examples:

Incorrect: https://www.ssl9.com/kin27327

Correct: https://www.ssl9.com/kin27327/

Contact us to find out more about what we can do for your company. We'll be happy to create a winning marketing plan with you. site marketing