Http vs Https

Today I learned the difference between HTTP and HTTPS in a most annoying way. Quite often users at work come to me when they want to get onto the library wifi and are presented with a warning message: 'this site's security certificate cannot be trusted' or some such. We always just tell them that to get onto our wifi they have to ignore this signal and continue anyway. I always wondered why the IT guys didn't have a proper security certificate for their website.

Now I notice that two new websites I built myself at home are also having this problem. When I raised a ticket with the server providers they said that my package did not include HTTPS. What were they talking about? I wondered. I asked them about certificates and they are giving me some garbage about HTTPS. What has that got to do with anything? I mulled it over. Then I asked my husband at home, who knows supposedly nothing at all about technology. "Oh that." he said. "Yes. I started noticing it about a year ago. Old websites are HTTP but new ones are secure- the S is for security. We had a lot of problems with it at our school because the computers were locked down not to accept any insecure sites, which was just about all of them. YOu shouldn't have any problems though."

The problem seems to be variable depending on which browser you're using. But that is no good for a website designer: a website has to be as accessible as possible and not present any barriers to potential users. Also, more to the point, as well as appearing less secure, HTTP sites actually are less secure and can get...err.. in trouble. So HTTP is no good, as far as I am concerned.

"Why do you even bother to offer that HTTP service to your users?" I asked my servers (somewhat irately), "If it doesn't provide a security certificate is is not fit for purpose as far as I am concerned."

Still not really sure I have got my head around it all. Why does it work on some and not on others? Is it a problem for me or not? Will I have to dig deeper and get a package that includes HTTPS? (how annoying.) But the most annoying thing of all is that my husband knew more about it than me. He knows everything about everything else after all. Now no corner is safe!