[Discuss] Are there any SSL certificate authorities that don't cost a king's ransom?

[tmetro+blu at gmail.com (Tom Metro)]

Bill Horne wrote:
> Since our site is /on/ Dreamhost, that's /really/ nice to know. They
> might want us to buy a shopping cart, though, but it's a good place to
> start.

Nope, shopping cart, payment gateway, and merchant account are all up to
you to figure out. I believe there is a shopping cart among the "one
click installs," but using one may be overkill for your needs.

However, you should also be ware that to make use of your SSL
certificate on Dreamhost, you'll need to rent an IPv4 address from them
for $4/month. They don't yet support Server Name Indication for TLS[1] -
the protocol extension that allows a browser to specify the host it
wants to retrieve content from before the TLS handshake occurs, which
permits a shared hosting server to return the correct certificate. The
reason they cite is that the extension is not widely enough supported
yet. (Which is not a great reason, as there are plenty of limited
audience use cases, like for intranets, where encryption is still useful
and broad compatibility is not required.)

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Server_Name_Indication

A discussion thread on Dreamhost's lack of support for Server Name
Indication for TLS:
https://discussion.dreamhost.com/thread-120519.html

 -Tom

-- 
Tom Metro
Venture Logic, Newton, MA, USA
"Enterprise solutions through open source."
Professional Profile: http://tmetro.venturelogic.com/