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| SSL What is SSL? SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is a protocol created by Netscape® to manage the security of message transmissions in a network. This encryption process makes it extremely difficult for anyone to intercept and read information between your computer (the client) and the server to which you are making a connection. SSL is used mainly for connections that require you to provide personal information, such as your home address, telephone numbers, credit card numbers, and so on. Top How does SSL work? SSL uses a technique called public-key encryption, where each side of the transaction has a shared public key, and a private key that is not shared. Data encrypted with the public key can only be decrypted with the private key. Each side encrypts its data with the remote end's public key, so that only that destination, and no intermediary, can decrypt the transmission and access the data. Top How do I know if I am using SSL? All of this is transparent to the end user running an SSL-enabled browser to access the secure pages. When an SSL URL is indicated, the browser automatically starts the encryption process, a notification message may appear to the end user that security has been enabled, and some indication on the browser screen (such as a closed padlock in Internet Explorer) will appear to indicate that security is complete. Top Why should I use SSL? SSL makes it safer and more comfortable for your users to fill out forms, submit data, or fill out orders online. Many browsers will issue a warning (depending on security configuration) when form data is submitted over a non-SSL connection, and this warning discourages many users from submitting data over the Internet. Having SSL will encourage people to post information or submit orders online. Top Is SSL completely safe? SSL is not the ultimate answer to all information-related issues. It provides encryption of data, but it does not verify that the data submitted by a user is correct or not fraudulent. And SSL encryption is not impossible to compromise. However, to break the encryption used on SUNSERVER NETWORKS(TM) Web Site Hosting's secure server requires a large array of computers and days or weeks of computation time, far beyond the resources of the average criminal. Top What is a certificate? A certificate is not a physical document but an electronic binary code, which includes the mathematically generated data necessary for the server's public and private keys, as well as encoded information indicating the authority under which the certificate was granted. Because of the underlying relationship between SSL, HTTP, and the security checks built into most browsers, there is necessarily a one-to-one mapping between certificates, server names, and IP addresses. Thus, it is not desirable to place multiple server names under a single certificate. Top What is my SSL URL? Your SSL root URL is https://yourdomain.com. Note that the URL begins with https, not http as in a normal URL. This tells the browser to use the SSL port and protocol rather than regular HTTP. Top Where do I put my SSL Web files? There are two options available for SSL. The default is to keep SSL pages in a separate tree, and this is recommended. When SSL is enabled, a new top-level directory will be created in your account's file space called /secure-web . This becomes the root directory for your SSL site and functions exactly as the /web directory does for your regular site. When you place an index.html, index.shtml or other index file in this root directory it will cause that page to be displayed when the URL https://yourdomain.com/ is accessed. Directories and other files created in the /secure-web directory will appear as files and subdirectories under this URL. It is recommended that if you don't use an index page and instead refer to a different file in the secure-web directory (for example https://yourdomain.com/mypage.html) , you still put some type of index.html page within the /secure-web directory to make it less likely a user can look at what is in this directory. This could be a simple warning page or a page that redirects them to your home page. Alternatively, you can choose to have your SSL space map to your regular Web space. This is not recommended, because links may not work as expected and you likely will want your general content to be served through regular Web service and not SSL. In this case, the /web directory would serve as the root directory for both your regular and SSL sites. One other drawback is that because of the security protocol involved, SSL pages will access slower. Top What do I want to put under SSL? You will generally want to place only those components that require the user to submit data or other critical personal information under SSL and leave the rest of your site on the normal server, with links to the SSL site when form submissions and the like are needed. SSL connections require a great deal more handshaking to initiate, so if the end user is far away or on a slow connection there may be a perceived slowdown in page loading for SSL. Likewise, if the end user is on a very slow computer, the SSL calculations may cause the perceived speed to decrease. Thus, it is advised to run your site on the normal server and only connect to the SSL site to take orders and other information. Note: Make sure that any inline graphics you use on your SSL pages are also served by the SSL site. Some browsers will give a security warning if an SSL page includes insecure graphics, based on the browser configuration. Top How much does SSL cost? SSL is available as a standard feature for specific plans. For plans that do not include this feature, it can be purchased as an optional monthly package for a US$10 monthly fee. Traffic to your SSL site is calculated for bandwidth purposes the same as traffic to your normal site, and does not count the additional overhead from the SSL protocol. |
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