How to configure IIS settings for working with SSL and HTTPS

---

Overview

Using the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) to secure the Cayosoft Administrator web portal is important to protect users' privacy.

For end users to be able to verify the server's identity you should use an SSL certificate that authenticates the identity of a website and encrypts information sent to the server using SSL technology.

For test purposes, you can use Self-signed certificates. These are certificates created on your computer. They're useful in environments where it's not important for an end user to trust your server, such as a test environment.

For the production environment, you should use a valid certificate that you got from a known certificate authority (CA).

For details please see this article: How to Set Up SSL on IIS 7 or later | Microsoft Learn.

 

Using a Self-Signed SSL Certificate for testing the web portal

1. Open Internet Information Manager (Start type inetmgr, press ENTER).
2. Double сlick on the 'Server Certificate'.
3. On the Action menu, click 'Create Self-Signed Certificate'.
4. Enter a friendly name for your certificate, then click 'OK'.
5. Your certificate will be generated in the background.

 

Assigning the Certificate to HTTPS binding

1. Open Internet Information Manager (Start type inetmgr, press ENTER). 
2. Expand the Server, then Expand the Sites folder.
3. Select the Default website. 
4. On the Action menu, click 'Bindings…'.
5. Find https binding and click 'Edit...'. If there is no existing https binding in the Site Bindings dialog box click 'Add...' and do the following: 
   1. Change type to HTTPS. 
   2. Enter the hostname. 
6. Change the SSL certificate to the name of the certificate. You can use the Self-signed certificate that you created before for testing purposes, or select your production certificate.
7. Click 'OK'.  
   You will see the protocol HTTPS under the type column with the 'Host Name' column set to the server name you provided above.
8. Click 'Close'.

 

Connecting to the Web Portal with SSL

1. Open your web browser.
2. Enter the URL as follows, replacing server.domain.com with the name you assigned to the certificate.
   https://server.domain.com/cayosoftwebadmin/

 

Require SSL for the Cayosoft Web Portal

1. Open Internet Information Manager (Start type inetmgr, press ENTER).
2. Expand the Server, then Expand the Sites folder.
3. Expand the Default website.
4. Select 'CayosoftWebAdmin' site.
5. Double-click SSL Settings.
6. Click Require SSL.
7. On the 'Action' menu click 'Apply'.