Question: Questions About HTTPS

I have read the difference between http and https in your site ,but i had a doubt. . when i log on to gmail ... if the connection speed is slow, i get an option of "try the https site ". When I click on that , i get the page loaded fastly,I now have the following questions

1)Is there any advantage of https over http regarding the speed

2)Is there any coding change or is it just the permission king of stuff for http and https ,that is ,If i have a site namely http://xxxxxx.com ,and i want to change it to https:// xxxxxx.com , what shud i do ...

3)Is there any harm in visiting a https site ,, if no ,why does the browser give us a warning.?

thanking you,

Answer

1. No; because https is encrypted, the amount of data which must be transmitted is greater, so it is slower. However, you may be having issues (such as, for example, firewall issues) which are preventing the non-secure version of gmail from loading. Barring any other complications, http is always faster than https.

2. If you want to have a web site which allows HTTPS connection, you will need to purchase a security certificate. This can typically be purchased/installed through the company that hosts your site. Once your security certificate is set up, your visitors would be able to access your site either by http:// or https://.

3. No, there is no harm in visiting https sites. Browsers typically have a message like that in order to make sure people new to the internet are aware that there is a difference. There should be an option to disable that message; it'll probably be a checkbox that says "Don't tell me this again." It's perfectly fine to click that checkbox and avoid having that warning appear.

Hope that's helpful!

Regards,
Douglas Twitchell