Frontpage 2003 How To

Use SSL to Encrypt Pages in Your Web by Using Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003

When you use FrontPage 2003 to create a new Web, if you use the Encrypted connection required (SSL) option, all your Web uses the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) port to encrypt all the data sent to or from FrontPage 2003. With this option, you can also specify whether you want to use the SSL port for links to specific pages in a nonsecured Web. This article describes how to complete both encrypted authoring and encrypted browsing.

• FrontPage 2003 Support

Use SSL for Encrypted Authoring

To use SSL for encrypted authoring in FrontPage, follow these steps:

1. On the File menu, click New.
2. Under New Web Site, click the template that you want to use.
3. In the Web Site Templates dialog box, on the General tab, in the Specify the location of the new Web site box, type the HTTP location of the new site. Alternatively, you can select this location from the list, or click Browse to search for the location.
4. Click to select the Encrypted connection required (SSL) check box, and then click OK.
   Note – If you are creating a disk–based Web, the Encrypted connection required (SSL) check box is not available.

For additional information about creating a new Web, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

198092 – HOW TO: Create a New Web in Microsoft FrontPage 2000

SSL helps improve encrypted and authenticated communication between the client and the server based on public–key cryptography. To send an encrypted message, the sender encrypts the message with the recipient’s public key, and the recipient decrypts the message with the recipient’s private key. Because only the recipient has the private key that can decrypt the message, it is difficult for someone other than the recipient to decrypt the message.

To guarantee authenticity, a certificate accompanies the public key. A certificate is a digital signature on a digest of the friendly (human readable) name of the participant, together with the participant’s public key. The certificate is encrypted with the private key of the certification authority. To verify the authenticity of the public key of the participant, anyone can compute the digest of the friendly name and the public key for that participant. They can use the certification authority’s public key to decrypt the certificate and verify that the same digest results.

Note FrontPage 2003 can use Wininet.dll program interface if Internet Explorer 5 or later is installed and can use 128–bit encryption. If Internet Explorer 5 is installed with 40–bit encryption, FrontPage 2002 only uses 40–bit encryption. If Internet Explorer 5 or later is installed with 128–bit encryption, FrontPage 2003 can use 128–bit encryption.

Use SSL for Encrypted Browsing

If you do not want to encrypt your whole Web site with SSL, but you must have SSL encryption to search some of your pages, you can use a fully qualified URL to mix ports on a single Web. Web servers use a separate port for SSL connections. This port is identified by the protocol that the URL uses:

• http:// for an unencrypted Web site.
  –or–
• https:// for an encrypted Web site.

To create an SSL link for a page, use a fully–qualified URL. Do not use a relative URL to a specific file. For example, do not use the relative URL:

default.htm

Use the fully qualified URL:

https://example.microsoft.com/default.htm

The fully qualified URL forces the browser to use the SSL port (typically port 443) instead of the default port (typically port 80). To link from the SSL port to the default port, use a fully qualified URL with the unencrypted protocol. For example:

http://example.microsoft.com/default.htm

To create an SSL link for encrypted browsing from a page in your Web to another page, follow these steps:

1. Open your Web in FrontPage, and then select the text that you want to use for your hyperlink.
2. Click Insert, and then click Hyperlink.
3. In the Address box, type:

   https://Fully_Qualified_URL_Of_The_Linked_Page

   For example, type:

   https://example.microsoft.com/default.htm

4. Click OK.

Remote Site Settings

To use SSL connections on your Web server, you must configure the server with a certificate from a recognized certification authority. If the server does not support SSL, click to clear the Encrypted connection required (SSL) check box when you set the remote Web site properties. If you do not do this, you cannot publish folders and files to the remote Web site. If you do not know whether your Web site supports SSL, contact your Web server administrator or Internet service provider.

REFERENCES

For additional information about security features and Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS), click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

142868 IIS: Authentication and Security Features

For additional information about SSL and earlier versions of FrontPage, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

292633 – HOW TO: Use Secure Sockets Layer to Help Protect Pages in Your Web Using FrontPage 2002

205698 – FP2000: How to Use Secure Sockets Layer to Help Protect Pages in Your Web

194072 – FP98: How to Use Secure Sockets Layer to Help Protect Pages in Your Web

174424 – FP97: How to Use Secure Sockets Layer to Help Protect Pages in Your Web

The information in this article applies to:

• Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003

Microsoft Knowledge Base Article – 825493