SSL security

Netwinner Shared SSL Space

Contents of Shared SSL Space

What is SSL ?

SSL gives you the ability to communicate securely with your web customers. SSL protects all communications with your clients, so you can take credit card orders, protect sensitive personal information, and ensure that foreign hackers do not detect your passwords. SSL security makes eavesdropping on your web traffic almost impossible.

What is shared SSL Space ?

When a website is using SSL your visitors access it using https://www.website.co.uk instead of http://www.website.co.uk. Then, information between the browser's machine and your server is encrypted.

There are many technical requirements when installing SSL on a domain name. For example, the domain name will require a unique IP address and should not share a server with other domains. Also, the domain requires a certificate from a certification authority such as Thawte or Verisign which can take time to apply for.

As a quick and economical way of providing SSL functionality, you can purchase space on a shared SSL server. The generic domain name www.secured-space.com has been set up and SSL functionality installed on it. Subdirectories can be set up on this domain for secure content. So, for example, you could have your online order form at the URL https://www.secured-space.com/yourname/order.html.

How does it work ?

For example, suppose you were running an online store and we had your domain http://www.mystore.co.uk mapped to the folder /username/store1. We could also setup https://www.secured-space.com/mystore and map it to the same folder. Then your store would be accessible through either URL. When you hyperlink to your order form, or any other sensitive area of your site, you would simply link, for example, to https://www.secured-space.com/mystore/order.htm instead of http://www.mystore.co.uk/order.htm

We can setup as many different subdirectories on the SSL server as required. Each subdirectory costs Ł80 + VAT per year.

What scripting features can I use on the SSL Server ?

The SSL server supports all of the normal features such as ASP, JMail and iHTML. It does not, however, support the Blat command in Perl.

We can setup ODBC data sources on the SSL server for you. We would need further information from you for us to do this. We will advise what you will need to do.

Can I have SSL on my Frontpage domains ?

Currently we are not supporting secure space for domains hosted on the Frontpage servers. If we are hosting your Web Site on a Frontpage server and you need security e.g. to take credit card orders or to store confidential information we can set up secure space on another server and link the parts of your web site to this for your security needs.

Can I have https://www.myname.co.uk ?

We plan to offer this facility shortly. However, due to the technical requirements involved in having SSL on a domain name, it will be relatively expensive.



Last Updated 14 December, 2004