SSL Question

[magicalwonders]

Hello Folks,

I'd prefer to buy my own SSL certificate rather than use shared SSL but am puzzled at the differences between SSL and shared SSL listed under "Help"

Shared SSL
With this method, at the point the customer has to enter their credit card details they are transferred to a secure server (belonging either to Actinic or a third-party) where their credit cards details are captured securely

Using own certificate, Actinic gives the following options

SSL On
Select this option to start your online store working with SSL.

Checkout pages and Customer Login only
Actinic Business/Developer only
Puts only the checkout pages and customer account login/verification pages in under SSL.

Whole Site
Puts all your on line shop pages on a site under SSL.

The downside to this option is that all your product pages will be transferred to the buyer's PC using SSL. This will slow down the browsing speed.

I don't want to run the whole site using SSL and option two is not available to me as I'm using Catalog.

So I'm wondering when selecting "SSL ON" at what point is the customer taken to the secure part of the site?

Hope someone can advise.

Many thanks,

Myles

[pinbrook]

if you have your own SSL cert all of your site runs on one server.

If you use Actinic Shared SSL then the customer is transferred to actinics server for the secure part of the checkout.

Historically Actinic supplied a shared SSL facility, as at the time it was introduced it was the cheaper option.

Thwaite and Verisign SSL certs are still £200 plus Pa. But now you can also get SSL certs from Comodo for as little as £50 pa.

You are better of starting with your host who will tell you what SSL certs they can offer you, then weigh that up against Actinic shared.

You can run catalog with just the checkout in SSL.

[magicalwonders]

O.K. Bit confused here Jo.

I came across Comodo whose prices have swayed me in favour of my own certificate. Plus I understand I will be able to have the checkout pages looking the way I want.

Here's where I'm confused. You say that using own certificate means that the whole site runs on one server and finish by saying that I can run catalog with just the checkout in SSL.

Do I achieve that by just selecting "SSL on"

Many thanks,

Myles

[rmladden]

I don't want to run the whole site using SSL and option two is not available to me as I'm using Catalog.

Option two is still available with Catalog (I use this). You just do not have login. It switches to SSL at checkout.

[pinbrook]

You say that using own certificate means that the whole site runs on one server and finish by saying that I can run catalog with just the checkout in SSL

Having your own SSL cert means the customer doesn't have to jump to another server to process the checkout. They stay on your server in your secure mode. If you have SSL on checkout only, the customer jumps from http://yourdomain to https://yourdomain

[magicalwonders]

Thanks Bob, Thanks Jo,

I was looking at Actinic Help when I posted. In "help" It looks like there are three choices for SSL, Whereas there are really only two. This was throwing me a bit as I couldn't work out what the first one achieved!

I don't want the whole site SSL so I think I'll go with (option 2). Or the first button!

Many thanks,

Myles