Accessing Your Secure Server

To access your secure server, use a URL like this:

https://your_domain

Note that URLs intended to connect to your secure Web server should begin with the https: protocol designator instead of the more common http: protocol designator. Your nonsecure server can be accessed using an URL like this:

http://your_domain

The standard port for secure Web communications is port 443. The standard port for nonsecure Web communications is port 80. The secure Web server default configuration listens on both of the two standard ports. Therefore, you will not need to specify the port number in a URL (the port number is assumed). However, if you configure your server to listen on a nonstandard port (i.e., anything besides 80 or 443), you will need to specify the port number in every URL that is intended to connect to the server on the nonstandard port.

For example, you may have configured your server so that you have a virtual host running nonsecured on port 12331. Any URLs intended to connect to that virtual host must specify the port number in the URL. The following URL example will attempt to connect to a nonsecure Web server listening on port 12331:

http://your_domain:12331

Note

Some of the example URLs used in this book may need to be changed, depending upon whether you are accessing your secure Web server or your nonsecure Web server. Please view all URLs in this book as general examples and not as explicit instructions that will work under all circumstances.