web site problems = go here

[ARhoginNH]

https://www.ronpaul2008.com/donate

just make sure you have the "s" after http

the "s" means Secure..

[boondoggle]

blimp

[Ksuperneau]

Blimpity!!!

[ARhoginNH]

seeing people still have problems, nother blimp

[1913_to_2008]

Is That Site Secure?

[ARhoginNH]

Is That Site Secure?

to the best of my knowledge anyone else want to help me expalin this?

https://www.ronpaul2008.com/donate

[trueg]

to the best of my knowledge anyone else want to help me expalin this?

https://www.ronpaul2008.com/donate

The 's' in https stands for secure sockets layer or ssl for short. SSL is a web encryption protocol. It uses public-private key encryption to ensure that no one is able to decode your transmission. This means that even if the NSA has a splitter on the fiber optic line for your internet transmission (they actually did this at ATT headquarters), they still can't figure out how much you donated to Ron Paul. If they read every single bit going by on the internet line, it still won't be enough. How is this possible? This is the magic of public-private key exchange:

With public-private key exchange. Each party has two keys, a public key and a private one. Everyone can see my public key, but no can know my private key except me. If you encrypt a message with your private key, then the only key that can decrypt that message is the public key, however your private key can not be used to decrypt the message after encryption. very cool. This also works if you encrypt with the public and decrypt with the private which is why the terms: public and private are misleading. It's better to think of them as just a key pair.

This is how it works: The browser sends the public key to a web-server. The server then encrypts a message using that public key and sends it back to the user. Now remember, only the users private key is now able to decrypt the message. And what is the message? Another key, except this key is shorter and is used for the symmetric bulk encryption. This is because, public-private key encryption is slow. It also requires a very long key to be secure. An asymmetrical 1024-bit key is equivalent to a 128-bit symmetrical key. Symmetric encryption, where all involved parties haves the key, is much faster. In fact, it is so fast you can run your entire operating system on a symmetrically encrypted drive. I do.

Now that both user and server have the 128-bit symetrical key, they can exchange data in complete privacy. Any third party listening to this exchange will NOT have the 128-bit key and will be left facing and completely random looking blob of encrypted data. I believe that SSL uses AES encryption for the symmetric bulk encryption.

[Baba Ram Dass]

In addition to trueg's fine explanation, the 's' also ensures that the site you're connecting to really is Ron Paul's site.

[ARhoginNH]

thanks baba. I read that twice and didn't know wtf he was saying

[trueg]

thanks baba. I read that twice and didn't know wtf he was saying

ARhoginNH, if you want a good primer on encryption, I recommend that you listen to podcast 33 and 34 of this series.:cool:

http://www.grc.com/securitynow.htm

[ARhoginNH]

bookmarked will tune in.. thanks

[RobS]

Yeah, that was an excellent description of encryption :)

To get a better understanding, go on Wikipedia and look up ciphers and then just replace encryption with "cypher text" but computer encryption if done properly is like 10000000x more secure than any manual cypher.

It can be confusing, but if you are interested in computer security whatsoever, it is a good thing to know about.