How Do I Make Web Site Secure?

[AA Smith]

I'm not sure why, off-hand, but every time I access my web pages online, a
warning message pops up informing the user that they are about to enter a
site with both secure and non-secure items. It offers users Yes/No button
options. That message pops up not only when users enter the web site, but
also every time they click any hyperlink that would transfer them to another
page in my web. The only pages on the whole site that permits input of any
kind at present are a feedback form and a petition form, so I guess those
constitute a non-secure items.

My question is, how do I secure all pages (or at least the pages that permit
users/viewers to input information) in the site, so that the warning message
will stop popping up ad nauseum?

 

[Mark Fitzpatrick]

The error probably isn't what you think it is. This error means that the
browser has detected that some of the items in the page, such as images, are
coming from a server that is using http when your server itself is using
https (a secure ssl connection). For example, you have a site that is
secured with ssl so users enter it using https instead of http. Somewhere on
the page you have an image that is from another web site, say a product box
image or a hit counter, but the link to the image reads http:// instead of
https. Then the user is prompted whether or not they want to see the items
that come from a non-secure site.

I see this a lot with Flash animations since the information that points
back to Macromedia to let the browser know where to find the flash control
is usually made with an http link instead of https. Dig around to see what
external references are being made using http. You can try changing them to
https, but if the server that the item is hosted on doesn't have an ssl
certificate you may receive an error and more than likely have to dump the
external item.

Hope this helps,
Mark Fitzpatrick
Microsoft MVP - FrontPage

 

[AA Smith]

Thanks Mark!

You're right; I did not realize that the error might relate to external
references. There are a few links on my web to external web sites on other
servers. Although, my web site is accessed (I think by the ISP's
restriction) using http-not https, though I'd really prefer https, I do
have to publish to an https address on their web site, but, as far as I
know, I can't use https for users to access my web site. Or... Can I?