What is an SSL Certificate?

[realestatewiz]

What is an SSL Certificate and why do I need one?

 

[SpareDomains]

you would need an ssl if you are selling products from your site and are looking to integrate with some form of shopping cart program, if you have an ssl certificate it secures the transaction from the buyers browser to your server, a dedicated ip address is also needed if looking to use a ssl certificate, an alternative would be to use paypal if only selling a few products as then you would only be linking to an order form and the ssl would be on their end, if selling tons of products and wanting to set up your own shopping cart system getting your own ssl & dedicated ip is the way to go, basically it secures or encrypts the transactions and makes them secure from the buyers browser to your server.

 

[Dave_Z]

You'll need an SSL cert if you wanna achieve this:

https://www.yourdomain.com/shoppingcart.php

Notice the s after the http, it'll also show a lock icon at the bottom of your
browser. These indicate the page in question (say, the shopping cart) is in a
secure server and will encrypt any data you input in that page.

I remember reading about 2 providers who gave such for free. But I've never
given 'em a whirl.

 

[RTM]

It can be practical for securing (through encryption) the transfer of information that isn't necessarily directly related to a shopping cart.

Say for example you wish to set up an extranet (Web site for specific partners or clients outside your company) and you don't want their interaction with your site (posts in forums, forms completed, online chat within your site) to be sent in clear text between your visiting browsers and your website... then setting an SSL certificate on your web site or server for your domain would be a good way of doing it.

Cheers,

Rob

 

[IAmAllanShore]

Good posts above, just a touch more info here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Sockets_Layer
-Allan :gl: