Difference Between Self-Signed and Third Party Security Certificate

SSL Security Certificates

In the current internet age, almost all web-based enterprises leave no stone upturned to engage their target customers across the globe, which happens to be a move that has inevitably become the most crucial step towards establishing a successful online business. In case of an online ecommerce industry, one may find it difficult to believe that 75 per cent of online consumers seek a security certificate before making any online purchase. That is to make sure that an online website is protected and verified by an SSL certificate.

Those who are unfamiliar with the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), it is a type of security certificates, which are provided mostly by Verisign, Comodo or one of the Symantec brands. In the absence of a valid SSL certificate by one of the reliable aforementioned brands, the reliability of the website is not confirmed and thus, online buyers generally click away and look for some other portals. A security certificate like SSL is actually an electronic credit card that verifies the identity and credentials of an online site, engaged in internet marketing and other types of retail transactions across the World Wide Web.

What is a security certificate?

A website's security certificate is issued by the Certification Authority (CA) and consists of name, serial number, expiration dates and a copy of its owner's public key access. A valid SSL certificate is usually required for encryption of information, messages and digital signatures. Additionally, an SSL certificate for website comprises the digital signature of a certificate issuing authority, in order to enable an online visitor to verify its authenticity and source. Further, security certificate like SSL can be listed in online registries, so as to facilitate authentication procedure for any consumer by allowing checking public keys for verification.    

What is better - Self signed or third party signed security certificate 

A few IT tech-heads believe that expenses on website verification can be easily cut down by removing third party SSL certification from the budget equation. Those with the idea of spending money on a SSL certificate for an ecommerce business portal or an official company site is nothing but trivial, and are walking on a tight rope. A self signed security certificate for an online retail/business website is not a viable substitute for paid certification, offered by Verisign, Comodo or Symantec. As per reports and market studies, the net cost of owning a valid SSL certificate is much greater than the actual price of the certificate. Since, the input costs on data centre storage space, management software and security hardware, amid others, easily add up to a huge sum for building a secure and self signed website.

What is the difference between reseller hosting and shared hosting

Reseller Business

There are various companies across the world, which provide web hosting services at reasonable rates. Renting space and bandwidth to publish an online website is known as web hosting. One has to register a domain name (name of the company- example: 123company.com) and then apply for hosting. As long as the domain name has not been taken by someone else, it can be purchased.

A single control panel is provided for the purpose of shared hosting and it is exclusively created for a single user. Additional parked domains can be included as add-ons. On the other hand, reseller hosting is for those people who want to share hosting space and demands several control panels. Each control panel can be sold with an unlimited number of domains. Space available in the shared hosting is more than reseller hosting, since there is only a single user who adds content, unlike multiple users in the other.

Through reseller hosting, multiple shared accounts can be created and each one of these can be sold individually. Every account comes with an individual login, whereas the shared hosting accounts only have a single login. Generally, individuals purchase bulk space to resell it in future, which in turn attract profits, whereas simple space is purchased for creating singular websites through shared hosting. But since both are sharing resources from a server, technically both operate on a shared basis.

Unlimited reseller hosting is a farce

On websites of companies selling hosting space, one may encounter companies which provide unlimited reseller hosting. This is actually a myth, since space is also dependent on bandwidth settings. A realistic number has to be always assigned, which can be increased to include more and more users in the future. It is not possible to set disk and bandwidth to unlimited on reseller, but this setting is sometimes observed on shared web hosting.

There is another type of hosting referred to as dedicated. This means that the server is only for oneself, which could be either through a standalone or a reseller account. On the other hand, different users share the same server for data storage under shared hosting. Each site rests on its own partition to differentiate it from the other ones.

Web hosting does not require much technical training

One does not need to have detailed knowledge about reseller to become an entrepreneur in web hosting. It is only the data centre operator who looks after maintenance of network space and hardware. The regular owner of this service is the one who configures and secures the server to make sure it operates in a trouble-free manner. Though the customer base is formed by the reseller, hardware and connectivity problems are handled typically by the service provider.