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Making Your Virtual Servers HTTP Service Secure
pg. 11

• What is a Digital Certificate?
• Using our "shared" Digital Certificate
• Obtaining Your Own Digital Certificate
• VeriSign
• Thawte
• Renewing Your Digital Certificate
• SSL–Secure Socket Layer

The information that is transferred between your virtual server and a visitor to your Web site may pass through many different computers as it crosses the Internet. As a result, it is possible that someone may attempt to intercept this information. Even if you are personally not concerned about this threat (it is actually quite rare), visitors to your Web site may be very concerned. Therefore, in cases where you are transmitting sensitive information, we recommend you use the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol with your virtual server's HTTP service.
Before you can run SSL on your virtual server, however, you must gain access to a Digital ID (also known as a Digital Certificate). You can either use our 'shared' Digital ID (at no extra charge), or obtain your own from a certificate authority such as VeriSign or Thawte. For more information about SSL and Digital Certificates, please read our Frequently Asked Questions About SSL

What is a Digital Certificate?
A Digital Certificate, or Digital ID, is the electronic counterpart to a driver’s license, passport, or membership card. It can be presented electronically to prove your identity, or to validate your right to access private information or services online.
Digital IDs bind a person’s or a computer’s identity to a pair of electronic keys. These keys can be used to encrypt and digitally “sign” information to prove its authenticity. A Digital ID makes it possible to verify someone’s claim that they have the right to use a particular key, and helps prevent people from using false identities or keys to impersonate other users. Used in conjunction with SSL encryption, Digital IDs provide a complete security solution, assuring the identity of all parties involved in an online transaction.
For more information about how Digital IDs work, take a look at VeriSign’s FAQ at the following URL:
http://digitalid.verisign.com/server/help/hlpIntroID.htm

Using our "shared" Digital Certificate
If you don't want to purchase your own Digital Certificate, you can "share" the  Digital Certificate that we use at no extra charge. Using our 'shared' Digital Certificate will save you the cost of purchasing your own.
The sslrx.com certificate also provides a low-cost solution for providing SSL to your virtually hosted domains. Virtual hosts on your virtual server can use SSL with the sslrx.com wildcard certificate.
Using a "shared" certificate does not compromise the security of your transaction; however, if the domain name to which the Digital ID is issued does not match the domain name of the server it is being used on, a warning message appears that could potentially scare away customers. This warning simply states that non-matching domain names can indicate someone is possibly trying to intercept the message. Again, the transaction is secure; the warning simply informs the visitor that the domain names do not match. Because many visitors become concerned by such warning messages, however this Digital "wildcard" certificate can be used on multiple Web servers without producing a warning. The domain name associated with virtual servers wildcard certificate is sslrx.com.
When you request that SSL be placed on your virtual server, the virtual servers Technical Support staff will place a canonical domain name in our sslrx.com zone file in the form of "canonical.sslrx.com." You will then be able to reference your Web pages in secure mode by using the canonical address we send you (i.e., canonical.sslrx.com) instead of your regular address.
For example, if your canonical were user1, "user1.sslrx.com" would be pointed to your IP address, so by typing "https://user1.sslrx.com" into your browser, you would access the home page of your virtual server in secure mode–without the pesky warning message!

Obtaining Your Own Digital Certificate
If you do not wish to use our Digital Certificate, you can purchase your own certificate from RSH Web Services, VeriSign or Thawte.
Please note that Digital Certificates can only be installed for the principal domain of the virtual server. Separate Digital Certificates cannot be created for Virtual Hosts. If you would like to use SSL on a virtually hosted domain, you must use our shared certificate as described in the previous section.

VeriSign
VeriSign is one of the oldest and largest providers of Digital IDs on the Internet. The majority of secure Web sites prefer to use VeriSign IDs. For more information on VeriSign and their products, visit their Web site at http://www.verisign.com/
Ordering your own Digital Certificate is a somewhat lengthy process, but is not difficult if you follow the correct procedure.

Thawte
Currently, certificates issued by Thawte cost $300 and are valid for one year. Renewals currently cost $300 per year. Thawte’s prices are subject to change, so check their Web site at http://www.thawte.com/ for up-to-date pricing.
For more information on Thawte and their products, visit their Web site at http://www.thawte.com/.

Renewing Your Digital Certificate
Digital Certificates obtained through VeriSign or Thawte are issued for a period of one year. Prior to the end of that period, your Certification Authority will remind you that you need to renew your certificate.
For VeriSign certificates, the process of renewing a certificate is identical to the process of obtaining a new one.
For Thawte certificates, you can visit the Thawte Web site to accomplish this task: http://www.thawte.com/

SSL–Secure Socket Layer
SSL, which stands for Secure Socket Layer, is an industry-standard way of passing sensitive information between computers. SSL is often used to securely transfer credit card numbers and other sensitive information across the Internet. Developed by Netscape, SSL is also referred to as Netscape Encryption.
After you have installed a Digital Certificate on your virtual server, visitors will be able to connect to your virtual server using the HTTPS protocol on an SSL-enabled Web browser such as Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Any file that is transmitted from your virtual server to a Web browser using the HTTPS protocol is considered secure.

The only difference between the addresses is the protocol (HTTP vs. HTTPS). However, only the URL using the HTTPS protocol would be considered secure. Whenever you want to link to a page from within your Web site, and you want that page to be transferred in secure mode, be sure to use the HTTPS protocol.