Remember: Only One Ssl Certificate Per Ip Address On Your Dedicated Server

By Author: Misty Blake
Total Articles: 8
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SSL certificates are something you’ll hear a lot about when you first start looking at dedicated servers. And when many business owners or owners of large websites first hear about them, they think that they’re for e-commerce sites, or sites that will have the exchange of credit card, financial, or other personal information. While that’s true, SSL certificates are about much more than just that; and they also come with specific rules that you need to know about, too.

SSL certificates are tiny files of data that electronically hold a cryptographic key to a company’s, or website’s, details. While the inner workings of SSL certificates can get pretty complicated and techie, essentially they open up a secure portal between your web server and the browser that allow information to be transferred safely and securely. In addition to that, SSL certificates also bind the website’s or the company’s information together, and assign it to any and all of the information that’s being transferred.

Once websites have an SSL certificate, the often find that they want more, as they can greatly help with the maintenance ...
... and management of specific types of data. However, there is a catch that only one IP address can carry one SSL certificate. This is because browsers require that the SSL certificate they’re communicating with have just one IP address, and that they don’t share it with any other certificates. For those business owners that find they absolutely need more than one certificate, this is another benefit that dedicated server bring.

That’s because you can usually create as many IP addresses as you’d like on a dedicated server; and each of those can have their own SSL certificate. This is something that can’t be done on a shared hosting plan, and often even with VPS, as sometimes you are still limited in the amount of addresses you can have on these types of web hosting plans.

In order for SSL certificates to be functional, they need to be installed directly onto the web server; and because of that you should speak to any web host you’re considering about them before signing up with them. Nearly all web hosts will offer SSL certificates and if they don’t, you shouldn’t consider them – not for a dedicated server, anyway.

SSL certificates also bring with them the benefit of drawing more visitors to your website. Visitors love going to websites that they know is secure and so, whether they’re leaving their credit card information on it, or their email addresses, they know that the information is safe and that it won’t fall into the wrong hands or be used incorrectly. Visitors know right away that sites they’re visiting have SSL certificates installed onto them, and that makes them want to come back again and again!

SSL certificates can get pretty complicated, but the basic understanding of them is very simple: they create a secure portal for your website and web browsers to communicate through. Any website you’re running should have one, and if you want more, you should be using more IP addresses in order to have them!

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