Mathieu Arnold wrote:
> > > I know that it should be possible because certificates are just a way to
> > > authenticate the server, not to establish the crypto.
> >
> > No, the server certificate is also important and required for the secure
> > exchange of the crytography parameters of SSL/TLS. Without this, the
> > client and server would not be able to securely exchange the necessary
> > symmetric encryption parameters.
> 
> well, that's right, but, if I don't really care about that much security
> and would just like some crippled http to get rid of young kiddies ?

Read Ralf's reply again - the certificate actually *contains* the
server's public key. The browser uses this to encrypt a session-key and
send this back to the server. Thereafter, the browser and server use
this common session key to communicate throughout the rest of the
session.

Without a certificate, the browser can *never* establish communication
with the server. It's like opening a locked door without a key. Read
some of the docs for more details.

If you don't care about authentication (or rather, if you believe your
clients don't care about authentication) then make a self-signed
certificate as described in the mod_ssl docs (see the website). This
will provide the free certificate you need to get SSL working.

Rgds,

Owen Boyle.
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