Question

I have a shared SSL certificate from my web host which (for this posts sake) looks like this:

https://some-ssl-cert/mysite

Going to that link would go to my site, and display it in https:// with a green padlock.

The normal site is http://

How do I display the main login for the website as https://?

Obviously I cannot tell or redirect my users to https://some-ssl-cert/mysite so I am very confused on how to implement this.

Lastly, when I need to send sensitive information on other pages that aren’t https:// would I simply send that information to https://some-ssl-cert/mysite?

So for instance, if I needed to make a secure ajax request or something would I access the .php file via https://some-ssl-cert/mysite?

Answer 1

How do I display the main login for the website as https://?

You need an SSL certificate for the host name used for your site. You also need your host to support it.

Lastly, when I need to send sensitive information on other pages that aren’t https:// would I simply send that information to https://some-ssl-cert/mysite?

If you need to send sensitive information, then you need to do it over HTTPS. If you are using plain HTTP then you need to redirect to the HTTPS site.

So for instance, if I needed to make a secure ajax request or something would I access the .php file via https://some-ssl-cert/mysite?

The entire webpage needs to be served over HTTPS. Otherwise:

• It will be a cross-origin request and the ajax will fail (CORS/JSONP/et al excepted)
• The non-secured page could be interfered with (e.g. JS added that would steal the securely acquired data).