SSL?

Ice Rich · 21 Apr 2008 at 16:40

Hi all,

I'veherd its best to use SSL whenever using the web, am i right in saying though that xp does not come with the SSL library's and need to be installed separately?

Any help is appriciated.

MarcLister · 21 Apr 2008 at 18:10

You only really need SSL when on sites buying something or some other secure site. Your browser should take care of it all.

Equin0x · 21 Apr 2008 at 18:31

Unless your of a paranoid disposition and think that The Man is monitoring all your internet usage. OpenSSL is an open source SSL package which can be freely downloaded. If your not the paranoid type, what MarcLister said is ok.

Ice Rich · 21 Apr 2008 at 19:10

Thanks for replies guy, I mainly want SSL for mIRC.

I'm still confused by it all though, ive herd of SSL on sites (its built in to websites which you from from is'nt it?). But what does the openSSL packge do exactly. Also, any affect on surfing speed?

MarcLister · 21 Apr 2008 at 19:14

Ah. You meant SSL for instant chat? You didn't really make that clear. You can do that Pidgin I think, there is a secure chat plugin. For that you will need some plugin for whatever program but for general browsing the browser will take care of that.

Equin0x · 21 Apr 2008 at 19:23

The IRC network will need to support SSL connections, and you would connect on a different port to the standard 6667. Maybe 6668, 6670 etc. It's a pretty simple setup to get mIRC running through SSL. Download, install and configure OpenSSL (the FAQ is quite good), then select the options in mIRC to use your newly created SSL cert, and change the connect port in server options.

Although unless all clients on the network are connected via SSL, your messages will still be sent to them in plain text form, thus negating the purpose of using SSL.

Ice Rich · 22 Apr 2008 at 15:05

Thanks for replies,

MarcLister said:
Ah. You meant SSL for instant chat? You didn't really make that clear. You can do that Pidgin I think, there is a secure chat plugin. For that you will need some plugin for whatever program but for general browsing the browser will take care of that.

Can you explain the difference please between browsing with SSL (like in a browser), and using it elsewhere (like what does the OpenSLL package actually do?)

Equin0x said:
The IRC network will need to support SSL connections, and you would connect on a different port to the standard 6667. Maybe 6668, 6670 etc. It's a pretty simple setup to get mIRC running through SSL. Download, install and configure OpenSSL (the FAQ is quite good), then select the options in mIRC to use your newly created SSL cert, and change the connect port in server options.

Although unless all clients on the network are connected via SSL, your messages will still be sent to them in plain text form, thus negating the purpose of using SSL.

I thought that i just needed to add a '+' to port number?
So in order for SSL to be used, all clients on a server (or channel?) has to be also running SSL?

Thanks

AbsenceJam · 22 Apr 2008 at 16:20

I'm not sure you quite understand what SSL is. It's a secure connection between yourself and the server to prevent someone snooping on your traffic or posing as your client or the server. It's only necessary for sensitive transactions such as logins, credit card info etc and the server must support it.
OpenSSL allows you to use software that doesn't support SSL with servers that do. mIRC does support SSL if you have the OpenSSL libraries but say for example it didn't but the server did. In that case OpenSSL would establish the secure connection and act a local server which your client would connect to,

MarcLister · 22 Apr 2008 at 17:45

Ice Rich said:
Can you explain the difference please between browsing with SSL (like in a browser), and using it elsewhere (like what does the OpenSLL package actually do?

Thanks

AbsenceJam said:
I'm not sure you quite understand what SSL is. It's a secure connection between yourself and the server to prevent someone snooping on your traffic or posing as your client or the server. It's only necessary for sensitive transactions such as logins, credit card info etc and the server must support it.
OpenSSL allows you to use software that doesn't support SSL with servers that do. mIRC does support SSL if you have the OpenSSL libraries but say for example it didn't but the server did. In that case OpenSSL would establish the secure connection and act a local server which your client would connect to,

Sorted.

Equin0x · 22 Apr 2008 at 18:30

Ice Rich said:
I thought that i just needed to add a '+' to port number?
So in order for SSL to be used, all clients on a server (or channel?) has to be also running SSL?

Thanks

Your connection to the IRC server would be SSL encrypted but when the server sends out your message to the other people in the channel, the message wouldn't be encrypted, unless they are also using SSL.

Ice Rich · 22 Apr 2008 at 19:01

MarcLister said:
Sorted.

Thanks I am beginning to understand

So, the main role of SSL is to ensure that data gets to the correct place and that is has not been tampered with?

However, the role in SSL (in Mirc) is slightly different? After install of SSL library's openSSL operates as a 'middleman?' making sure data on both sides is correct? This obviously has the flaw of people being able to see your output (i.e text message) therefore it is important that they have SSL too, to validate what I typed and they see is correct?

Am i beginning to understand of going off course?

MarcLister · 22 Apr 2008 at 19:03

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Sockets_Layer

SSL is to keep stuff encrypted between two parties.

Equin0x · 22 Apr 2008 at 19:32

Your veering off course a bit, SSL isn't to do with data validaton. It's purely making an encrypted link between two systems. Have a read of the wiki page that Marc posted.