Secure Server Pages are requested using a URL starting with https, such as: https://www.yourdomain.com/ Typically, port 443 is used for secure server web pages that employ an encryption technique based on what are called Secure Socket Layers (SSL).
Operating a secure server (SSL) allows you to conduct e-commerce or other sensitive exchanges of data with your visitors in a way that will hopefuly make them feel more comfortable doing business with you.
SSL provides two basic ingredients of security:
- Safe Passage of Information: Your data cannot (we hope) be decoded by any party that might intercept the communications.
- Server Authentication: If your server is granted a certificate by a CA (Certificate Authority), your customer's can protect themselves from being directed to another server that is pretending to be yours by checking the contents of the certificate.
