[Forum] WHAT IS THE BENEFIT of the VBulletin Forum having a secured https ?

[David Copeland]

WHAT IS THE BENEFIT of the VBulletin Forum having a secured https ?

This site (the VBulletin Forum) has not used an https for many years, but now it is. I am curious why? And if other forums are going in that direction?

David

[Hansi]

The benefit is that you know you have reached the correct website and that your neighbour on your lan/wlan can not steal your passwords...

[David Copeland]

Then why don't the majority of web sites have an https on their home page?

What is the drawback?

(A simple ssl certificate costs me only $12-$15 a year)

[Maurd]

My forum uses mandatory connection encryption.

You can consider it a drawback that once under a secure connection, you cannot include insecure content on your site without it causing insecure/mixed content warnings. The severity of it varies between browsers. Some merely change the icon to a broken padlock and some start shouting bells and whistles. This primarily affects Advertising and hot-linking images from external websites since those are the main offenders.

Since my forum does not allow insecure content to be posted and we do not use advertising, we do not experience that problem. Another (possible) drawback is that it may be a little slower, due to the key exchanges, but I nor my members have experienced any reduced responsiveness.

I'm very happy with it, I couldn't imagine going back to insecure connections.

[ENF]

Another (possible) drawback is that it may be a little slower, due to the key exchanges, but I nor my members have experienced any reduced responsiveness.

This really statement doesn't really hold much water these days. The impact of having SSL is so miniscule, that it's barely measurable if at all.

The original poster: Having SSL is still a choice, it's not mandatory unless you are opting to use some other services that require it. For your basic forum that doesn't handle sensitive information or connect to other third-party services, then SSL isn't really all that necessary. Once you do enable SSL, you will need to be prepared to answer users inquiries if they receive any errors or notices after you switch to using SSL. Additionally, incoming links from user bookmarks and search engines will need to be redirected to the SSL connection, depending on you have it implemented.

Unless you really feel like you need it, it's not something you HAVE to do unless other circumstances warrant it.

[Maurd]

This really statement doesn't really hold much water these days. The impact of having SSL is so miniscule, that it's barely measurable if at all.

I agree completely. Which is why I specified "(possible)".

It's not likely, but it's possible. Especially on oversold and/or crap hosting. (Since he mentioned GoDaddy hosting in another thread).

[David Copeland]

I agree completely. Which is why I specified "(possible)".

It's not likely, but it's possible. Especially on oversold and/or crap hosting. (Since he mentioned GoDaddy hosting in another thread).

Yes, I was asking about Godaddy in another thread because I am looking at setting up another forum. But I can purchase an SSL for less elsewhere.

But the forum I have now has been a Dedicated Server at Hostrocket for 12 years. They offer superior service and support.

I was just curious about why VB had chosen to go with https.