Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)
SSL provides a level of security and privacy for those wishing to conduct secure transactions over the Internet. Introduced to the Internet market by Netscape Communications, the SSL protocol protects HTTP transmissions over the Internet by adding a layer of encryption. This insures that your transactions are not subject to "sniffing" by a third party.

SSL provides visitors to your web site with the confidence to communicate securely via an encrypted session. For companies wishing to conduct serious e-commerce, such as receiving credit card numbers or other sensitive information, SSL is a must. To find out more about how SSL works, please refer to the Introduction to Public Key Cryptography document authored by Netscape Communications.

While SSL handles the encryption part of a secure HTTP transaction, a Digital Certificate is necessary to provide server authentication. Ordering SSL for your Virtual Server is an easy task, you need simply send an e-mail message to our send an e-mail message to our Service Department and indicate which account you would like to add SSL. However, securing a Digital Certificate is a more intricate (and sometimes complicated) process. A seperate document describes Digital Certificates in detail.

Some answers to frequently asked questions about SSL and Digital Certificates can be found in Secure Server section of the AW Server FAQ. Please see our web page dedicated to Digital Certificate for complete information regarding obtaining and installing a Digital Certificate on your Virtual Server.

Beck Web offers SSL as an add-on enhancement feature for its Virtual Server System - a nominal setup fee is required (no monthly recurring charges are applicable - please see the SSL Price Schedule for complete price information).

Accessing Your Secure Server
You can access any of your web content (documents, images, scripts, etc) on your Virtual Server securely by using the "https://" prefix rather than the "http://" prefix. For example, to send the contents of a fill-out-form securely to one of your CGI scripts, you would include something like the following in your HTML source:

    <form method="POST"
          action="https://www.YOUR-DOMAIN.NAME/cgi-bin/script.cgi">

You should be sure that once you enter secure mode that you do not reference embedded document content (images, etc) by an insecure prefix (i.e. src="http://www.YOUR-DOMAIN.NAME/image.gif").