SSL Certificates...

[John Klyne]

I'm not entirely sure on what SSL Certificates are, but according to an advertisment I just saw on 10hosting, there is a company that says they have sold them to NASA and all these other organizations...

I'm wondering what a SSL Certificate is...if anyone can shed some light? With that answer, I'm hoping it'll tell me if I should be getting one for my sites...

I've seen many sites have them...so I am guessing they are there to show how reputabul some sites are? or...I have no idea...

...the main reason I posted this was to ask, if x10Hosting sells SSL Certificates? I looked at premium services, but I don't think I saw that as something we can buy...I figured if all these sites have these certificates, I should join the group with some of my sites.

Thank you, in advance for your time and help with these questions I have come across to want answers to.

[essellar]

An SSL certificate is a set of cryptographic credentials used for Secure Sockets Layer internet communication (like HTTPS). Anyone can generate an SLL certificate by acting as their own CA (Certificate Authority), which will allow secure communication. But data security isn't the only kind of security -- there's also the aspect of having a third party vouching for your site's identity (most browsers will throw a warning if they don't recognise the CA that issued the certificate). There are very few CAs that are universally recognised, and VeriSign (Symantec) is probably the best known. (Digicert advertises here; I don't know if they are a CA or a reseller.) Get a VeriSign certificate and you will never have trouble (unless you let the certificate expire). Cerificates are one per server, so in a shared hosting environment, you would need to have shared SSL available. x10premium does not list shared SSL as one of its features; I would assume that shared SSL is not part of the packege. You could buy your own certificate for use on a VPS, though.

[John Klyne]

Thank you Eseller for your reply it was very helpful. I appreciate it, thank you for your time and post.

[ChatIndia]

I too have a SSL certificate. I got it free with my x10vps.

But I don't know how to install it and so its not visible in my site.