Why Do I Need An SSL Certificate?
This blog post will first try to explain what an SSL certificate is and why you may need one. I will try to keep it plain and simple, but there may be areas that become a little technical.
What is the purpose of an SSL certificate? Well an SSL certificate allows your web browser to make a secure connection to a web service while claiming that you can trust the secure connection.
When you enter a website’s URL into your browser and hit enter, you’re starting a process of establishing a secure connection to that website. This is done through SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) or its successor, TLS (Transport Layer Security).
The process begins with a handshake where the browser and server exchange keys to create a secure connection. The server sends a certificate to prove its identity, and once the browser verifies this certificate, a unique session key is generated for encrypting the data. This ensures that the information you send and receive is protected from eavesdroppers.
While this is a very simple example, it gives you a basic idea of what happens between the web browser and web server during an encrypted browsing session.
Now since we have covered the basics of how SSL works, what are some reasons to use SSL?
- Helps keep data secure. Without encryption, anyone can potentially view the data you transmit over the Internet.
- Helps to give confidence to people using your website. When they see the SSL lock icon in their web browser, it makes your web visitors feel secure (and they should be secure!).
- SSL encryption prevents third parties from modifying a website’s content before it reaches your web visitors. This can be a problem if you are dealing with sensitive information (or any information really). This is why having SSL on a website that technically does not need it can still be beneficial.
- Adding to the above information, some ISPs have inserted their own scripts / notifications into the web pages their customers visit. This makes for a poor experience for the customer, and also makes the website owner look bad, since most customers are going to blame the website owner for the “bad experience”, instead of their ISP.
- Having SSL enabled on your website can help with getting a better search engine ranking from Google.
- Many mainstream web browsers require an SSL enabled website if you wish to use the new HTTP/2 protocol with your website.
- You definitely need one if you are running an online web store. No one will want to shop on your website if your website is not serving content over an encrypted connection.
- SSL encryption also hides the specific location you visited on a website. — For example, if I go to https://example.com/contact, since the website is using encryption, my ISP can only see that I visited the domain example.com. The encryption hides the /contact part of the URL. So my ISP knows I visited example.com, but they have no clue what webpages I visited on that particular website. Pretty neat, huh?
I hope I have helped you have a basic understanding of what an SSL certificate is and why it can be useful to have one for your website.
Posted in Computers, Internet and Servers, Security
What are Name Servers and why does my Web Domain Need Them?
If you have ever started a website, you probably have heard the term “name-server” before. However, you may not understand what they are and why they are an important part of the web-hosting infrastructure. I will try to keep this explanation simple yet useful.
A name-server is a server that specializes in answering queries regarding people’s domains and the various services that they are providing.
You can think of a name-server like a telephone book that lists phone numbers associated with names. In a similar way, a name-server lists information (e.g., IP addresses) associated with a particular queried domain name.
For example, when someone types in blog.computerlagoon.com, their DNS server sends an inquiry to one of my name-servers asking for information such as the IP address. All information the software needs in order to make a connection with my server.
Without a name-server (or DNS servers in general), you would be typing out numbers (e.g., 12.34.56.789) to access web services instead of domains (e.g., example.com). As you can see, typing out names is far easier than remembering a series of numbers for every website you visited.
You also want to make sure your web domain has at least two name-servers associated with it. Why? Because if you only have one name-server and that name-server happens to go down, no one that has not recently accessed your domain will be able to get your IP address to connect to your website.
Worse. If you have no name-servers online for an extended period of time (e.g., major outage), then search engines like Google may think that your website is no longer online and delist it from their search results.
That is why having at least two name-servers is recommended.
Posted in Computers, Internet and Servers
What Does the Bible Say About Salvation?
John 3:16 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
Romans 10:9 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved
Ephesians 2:8-9 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
John 14:6 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.
Acts 4:12 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.
Acts 16:30-33 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
and after he brought them out, he said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” And they spoke the word of the Lord to him together with all who were in his house. And he took them that very hour of the night and washed their wounds, and immediately he was baptized, he and all his household.
Romans 1:16 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
Posted in Christian
Merry Christmas 2017!
Luke 2:8-20 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
8 In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; 11 for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,
14 “Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.”
15 When the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds began saying to one another, “Let us go straight to Bethlehem then, and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us.”16 So they came in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph, and the baby as He lay in the manger. 17 When they had seen this, they made known the statement which had been told them about this Child. 18 And all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds. 19 But Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart. 20 The shepherds went back, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as had been told them.
Posted in Holiday