SSL Newbie

[Mountain Lion Website Design]

Hello,

Okay, its more apt to say I'm an "SSL preschooler."

If a web server "supports SSL," is the only thing I have to do in order
to use it, is specify "https" in URLs? If so, when I specify
"https://some.website.com/index.html," do I need to specify the full URL
when referring to relative pages ... that is, do I need to specify
"https://some.website.com/index2.html" or will it remain SSL if I just
specify "index2.html" in the anchor reference?

Also, when I use SSL on a form to send CGI data to a Perl script on the
server, and the script processes the form and generates HTML back to the
client, how do I use SSL to send from the server script to the client?
I know that when I generate a form from a script, I can just specify a
POST method and push https://some.server.com/cgi/process-cgi-form.pl
that will send the form data secure to the script ... but my script
performs data checks, and if something is amiss, it has to send a form
back to the client, with the fields that were okay filled in, along with
some hidden fields with data I do not want intercepted in transit.

Thanks in advance,
Howard

[Jimi Thompson]

No. Just because a server "supports" SSL doesn't mean that it's installed.

--
Jimi Thompson
Web Master
L3 communications

"It's the same thing we do every night, Pinky."

[G.L.Srinivasan]

Hi,
A secure URL is implied by "https://servername.domainname.com" as
opposed to
a non-secure(insecure?) URL : "http//servername.domainname.com". SSL is the
Secure
Socket Layer Protocol which uses encryption like DES, RC4 ciphers to encrypt
the data
that is transmitted across a browser(enabled for SSL by enabling the
Security options in
its menu) and a Netscape Enterpirse Server like NES 3.63(SSL options have to
be enabled
after acquirng and installing "root" and "server" certificates). SSL is
applicable only to the
secure transmission of data between a browser and a web server. It does not
apply to
how the web pages are stored at the web server file system. Browsers present
the user
identity by sending the selected client certificate for approval by the web
server.
If you specify "index.html", the URL becomes "http://index.html". "http"
protocol is used.
You have to specify "https://...." so that the servername(fully-qualified)
and page selection are
unambiguous.
Once SSL has been enabled, the form data exchange is secure using
encryption. SSL
takes care of encrypting and decrypting the data.

G.L.Srinivasan
Garban Intercapital, LLC
New York