Detecting SSL

[jeofoyster]

I don't know if there is a PHP solution to this or not, if you know of another place I should look, let me know.
I've seen this before but don't know how to do it: Is there a way to detect if the user is connecting to a webpage via SSL (https://), and if not, send an error message informing them of the need to connect via SSL?

Thanks!
Jeof

[Anon]

The best solution that I've found is to set up your webserver to have all SSL connection go to a different root directory. This way you can keep all of your encrypted information in one place and keep the users from making a mistake and accessing sensitive information in an unsecured browser. Then you can create stub files in your non encrypted directory for all of the encrypted files that just re-directs the users browser to the proper place.

Or if you don't want to do that you can check the $HTTP_SERVER_VARS["SERVER_PORT"] and see if it = 80, and if so re-direct the browser to the secure link.

[hawleyj]

I agree with Rob, but I think what you are talking about is customized error pages. I use them at work especially for 128-bit encryption requirements.

The server has a default error page set somewhere, and to do this you'll need access to it. We set ours up so if the client has Javascript enabled, we do a redirect and pop a small window telling them they are being redirected and why. If Javascript is not enabled, they get a customized error page explaining the situation and gives them a link to the https equivalent of the page they requested, which is derived dynamically.

The key, though, is having access to your error pages.

HTH,

Jim Hawley