Delay in firing up SSL page in checkout

[jheath]

Hi
We have an established site with the checkout using shared SSL provided by our hosts. When I do a test purchase and press checkout, the url changes from something like:
http://www.our-site.co.uk/cgi-bin/ca000001.pl
to something like:
https://www1.secureserver.co.uk/our-...in/os000001.pl

This often seems very slow, and sometimes times out. I wonder how many customers we lose at this point, and if there is anything we can do to speed it up. Our hosts say there is no problem with the secure server which has 100% uptime and is sitting on multiple very fast connections etc etc.

Would having our own secure server help, or are there other solutions?

I'd be interested to hear others comments or suggestions.

Many thanks

Jeremy

[pinbrook]

if its shared SSL provided by your host then there is probably nothing you can do to speed it up.

You best option is your own SSL cert, Actinic shared SSL or a PSP.

Personally I do not rate any shared SSL service provided by ISP/hosts as it will never be as good as the above 3 choices. The extra paid for a decent service will pay for itself with increased sales

[jheath]

we do use a psp (Protx), but we still have the checkout on the secure server, This is left over from the days when we used to download the encrypted c/c details and type them by hand into our cardmate terminal. Sorry if I'm a bit slow on this, but are we saying I don't need the secure server at all now we use protx?

[pinbrook]

you don't need SSL if you use Protx as all sensive processing is done on their secure server