Should I be running my ENTIRE site under HTTPS? Pros and Cons of this?

Discussion in 'Security' started by MikeLugar, Feb 28, 2011.

  1. #1
    I am currently running my entire site under HTTPS. Is this something I should not do? Will this hurt my website in any way?
     
    MikeLugar, Feb 28, 2011 IP
  2. chrisceo

    chrisceo Peon

    Messages:
    107
    Likes Received:
    2
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #2
    Are you on shared, VPS or dedicated server hosting? If on VPS or dedicated, you will notice larger amounts of CPU / RAM being used
     
    chrisceo, Feb 28, 2011 IP
  3. MikeLugar

    MikeLugar Well-Known Member

    Messages:
    1,453
    Likes Received:
    36
    Best Answers:
    2
    Trophy Points:
    150
    #3
    I am on a VPS. Will this hurt my seo by constantly redirecting http traffic to https?
     
    MikeLugar, Feb 28, 2011 IP
  4. RonBrown

    RonBrown Well-Known Member

    Messages:
    934
    Likes Received:
    55
    Best Answers:
    4
    Trophy Points:
    105
    #4
    It will slow things down, hit the CPU, and not bring any benefits if it isn't needed.

    With SSL the server has to encrypt it, stream it to the client, then the client has to unencrypt it at the other end. It's slower and put's a lot more strain on the server. Only use it where it's necessary and don't use it for your whole site.
     
    RonBrown, Feb 28, 2011 IP
  5. chrisceo

    chrisceo Peon

    Messages:
    107
    Likes Received:
    2
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #5
    No but if you think https/ssl = more secure, check out sslstrip ;-)

    You may have some issues with the speed on the site going through https/ssl but if you do not, then there is no problem
     
    chrisceo, Feb 28, 2011 IP
  6. RonBrown

    RonBrown Well-Known Member

    Messages:
    934
    Likes Received:
    55
    Best Answers:
    4
    Trophy Points:
    105
    #6
    Sslstrip doesn't make HTTPS less secure or affect the security of HTTPS. Sslstrip is a man-in-the-middle proxy which fools the end user into thinking they are connecting securely when they aren't. It doesn't hack the SSL Protocol itself. To operate something like this would require you to have access to the networks being used to be able to intercept the traffic..not the sort of thing your average hacker is going to be able to do.
     
    RonBrown, Mar 1, 2011 IP
  7. MCpap

    MCpap Peon

    Messages:
    15
    Likes Received:
    0
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #7
    Why would you want to do something like that?
     
    MCpap, Mar 6, 2011 IP
  8. hostiwant

    hostiwant Peon

    Messages:
    27
    Likes Received:
    0
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #8
    It will definitely slow things. On the other hand it will increase user confidence in ur site. So you need to make a tradeoff on what matter more to you.
     
    hostiwant, Apr 18, 2011 IP
  9. AdWorkMedia

    AdWorkMedia Member

    Messages:
    76
    Likes Received:
    1
    Best Answers:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    28
    #9
    We've been running HTTPS completely on our site and our page speed has been solid. If you have a good server I don't see it being a problem.
     
    AdWorkMedia, May 9, 2011 IP
  10. pinellashosting

    pinellashosting Member

    Messages:
    16
    Likes Received:
    0
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    36
    #10
    It should not affect your SEO. I would not worry to much about speed unless you have a lot of traffic or a slow server...
     
    pinellashosting, May 10, 2011 IP
  11. AdWorkMedia

    AdWorkMedia Member

    Messages:
    76
    Likes Received:
    1
    Best Answers:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    28
    #11
    If you handle the redirect properly with .htaccess you can avoid it hurting your SEO. Paste this in your .htaccess file and replace YOURSITEHERE with your own domain name.

    RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} 80
    RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://www.YOURSITEHERE.com/$1 [R=301,L]
     
    AdWorkMedia, May 10, 2011 IP