SSL Setup Help

I just purchased the SSL addon with the Discount ASP.NET option for purchasing the free RapidSSL certificate. I'm about to fill out the form to receive the cert, including the Common Name. I just wanted to be sure I plugged in the correct common name, and I understand what this means.

I have a domain on DASP, let's say www.domain.com. I'd like to host a web service in a folder under this domain and secure it with the SSL cert. I would also want to have a web site separate from the service at the root that's not secured. Is this possible, and what should my Common Name be on the form when I submit it? Could I have a secure application at domain.com, then a non-secure application at www.domain.com? I'm a bit confused as to how it work, and want to get it right. Thanks.

 

Basically whatever you put as the common name is what is secure.

If you put www.domain.com this will be secure but domain.com will not, so any visitors will have to enter www.domain.com for a secure connection along with the HTTPS prefix.

Which brings me to the other sometimes confusing issue of entering HTTPS for a secure connection. The HTTPS prefix is required if you would like to have a secure connection for example:

https://www.domain.com <=== Secure

http://www.domain.com <=== Not secure, though the page will still come up just not encrypted.

So it's up to you to choose what common name you would like to use just keep in mind the certificate in this case is(free rapidssl) only secures the whatever you set as the common name and visitors can only take advantage of it if they use the HTTPS prefix. Hope this helps, let us know if you have any other questions.

 

...I'm working on a new Webcast that shows how to use this on IIS7 and bounce your visitors back to whatever your secure common name is, which will keep the visitors from seeing an error.