Setting up SSL ?

[Rodders]

Hi

I'm going to be building a website (for a friend) which will include secure online purchasing. We have a host that supports SSL but we are confused about what we need to do and what we need to pay for.

Do we need to buy a security certificate, or is it possible to obtain a free certificate ? Is it easy to setup ? Does it depend on the host ?

Any info would be great. So far we've looked at the Thawte website and the Verisign website, but we don't really understand what we MUST do and what is optional.

Thanks

Richard

[MotherNatrsSon]

The server has the SSL certificate. All you have to do is put https:// in all the links to the pages you want secure. Your server should have some FAQ's on how to use SSL on that particular server becuase of how they have it set up.

MNS

[havik]

Here are some links to get you started:

http://wp.netscape.com/security/techbriefs/ssl.html
http://developer.netscape.com/tech/security/ssl/howitworks.html
http://www.protekt.com/example.html
http://java.sun.com/products/jdk/1.2/docs/guide/security/cert3.html
http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2660.html
http://134.184.15.11/docs/eassec/eassecp25.htm


https is the http protocol with a SSL layer. Basically what you would do is write your online purchasing code. Get that tested and working. Then you get a Certificate from VeriSign, Thawte (remember to ask if their certificates are trusted by default by browsers, otherwise it's a bit more work on your part). Once the certificate is set up on your server, and its trusted by the browser, all you'd need to do is hit the URL but with the https:// protocol.

[Rodders]

Sorry for the delayed response, but thank you for your replies.

I will look at these links and repost if I have further trouble.