   https without certificate
  I haven't been able to reliably verify this. Question is:Does the secure part of https work without a valid SSL certificate? That is, if one doesn't spring for a VeriSign certificate, is the connection still encrypted?Thanks!   
  Yes.   ;  You need a certificate containing the encryption key, but it does not need to be signed from a major root CA.  You can use an unsigned or self-signed certificate if you want.Be aware that if it is not signed by a trusted root CA the user's web browser will throw up some scary security warnings, which can be bypassed by the user.   ;  If you use SSL, regardless of the certificate, nobody will be able to intercept a request between your server and your visitor. On the other hand, anyone will be able to masquerade as your server with their own SSL certificate.   ;  OK thanks guys!   