SSL ready yet???

[Aaron]

Hi!
I just wanted to know if the SSL servers are ready yet. If not, does anyone know where I can use a secure server at least temporarily until FQ has their's ready?

Thanks in advance!
Aaron

[meikel]

Hi Aaron,

I cannot answer your question, but I just visited your site and find that the links are extremely hard to read. Most links are colored dark blue on black background.
It is necessary to move the mouse over a link to make it red and readable.

Maybe it's a good idea to change the standard link color.

Greetings from Bonn, Germany
[nbsp][nbsp]Meikel Weber
http://www.meikel.com

[Aaron]

What screen resolution are you viewing it in? If you are trying to view it in 256 colors, its not gonna look all that pretty. But if you are viewing it at High Color or True Color, it should look fine. I've never had any complaints about the links not being readable before.
Perhaps it is just me...Does anyone else see the links as being hard to read?

Aaron

[Justin]

I'm afraid I must agree with Meikel on this one. The dark blue is quite dark. Otherwise the site's nice. I'm running high color at 1024 x 768.

You should always consider lower resolutions / color pallettes when you design a site, though, and try to make it look good on any computer, so as not to leave anyone out.

Justin

[hearts]

I went to your site.. and it is a little hard on the eyes to read that dark blue on the black background .. but i just highlight it all with my mouse. I guess going from a white back ground site to a dark site, it just takes the eyes a few to adjust.. and mixing the blue with all that white text, kinda takes away the focus of the link. The font size has something to do with it too.

I see why you chose the blue, cuz it matches your site! http://www.aota.net/ubb/smile.gif It is a very nicely organized, very easy to navigate, and coordinated! and it really didn't bother me to have to highlight with the mouse. Maybe what you could do is tell people that if they are having a hard time reading any of the text... to hold down the left click of the mouse to highlight. http://www.aota.net/ubb/wink.gif

-----

hearts

---- no further comments ---- http://www.aota.net/ubb/wink.gif

[hearts]

justin.... JUSTIN

YOU are sooooooooooo right.. i got my guestbook all color coordinated.. *so i thought* .. and I thought I had shades of browns going.. with one light shade of pink for the altnernating entry.. and ya know what i discovered on my other unit. *which I have set at 256 colors* .. that I have every shade of pink there! *no brown tones*

oh well.. it ain't so bad. http://www.aota.net/ubb/wink.gif

----

hearts

although.. I don't feel we should limit ourselves because of so many different kinds of limitations. Cuz if we spent our time trying to conform to what everyone had.. we wouldn't really ever progress. HA.. we might never get much accomplished..



[This message has been edited by hearts (edited 02-03-99).]

[meikel]

Hi Aaron,

I'm using IE4 at 800x600 in True-Color.
An unreadable color scheme is a k.o. criteria for me and I usually immediately leave the site.

Unless there is some extremely important information I'm trying to find on that page, I'm not taking the hassles of highlighting text or taking other measures to make a page readable.

I really love your color-fading main menu and I clicked to go to the FAQ which is usually one of the first pages I visit with a new page. Unfortunately, this page contained lots of links in the first page of view and so I returned and wrote my first response to you.

Usually, I don't email webmasters or even post here about web-design. This only happens, if I find a nearly perfect site with a design I really like, but that has IMHO a single glitch removing it from the "best-of-the-web" category.

You might want to check out
http://www.lava.net/~dewilson/web/color.html which explains some other factors on colors to consider (not only that I personally find dark on dark hard to read).
There are people on the web with color disabilities that might see your page totally black-on-black.
I try to keep my own site with bright colors and large contrasts, only combining dark and light colors.

The page given above contains lots of interesting material for any web-designer. I've not yet read even parts of it http://www.aota.net/ubb/smile.gif

Greetings from Bonn, Germany
[nbsp][nbsp]Meikel Weber
http://www.tickerland.com

[Justin]

Hello,

There is a standardized internet color palette that will ensure that all of your colors show on all platforms with at least 256 colors. It's called the Netscape palette, but it goes for all browsers, on the Mac and PC. There are 216 valid colors.

Basically, for HTML colors, you are allowed any combination of:

00

33

66

99

cc

ff

So 0033cc is valid. This prevents some 256 color systems from dithering to attempt to make up the color you want. Usually, the dithering is very bad. In other words, say there's 500 pixels accross, and the color you want is c0c0c0 - a medium grey. The result is that the first few pixels are cccccc and then there's an oddball of 999999. This works out mathmatically to get an average of c0c0c0, but math and human perception are two different things.

I am also guilty of skipping the 216 color thing, but I am slowly correcting all colors to the nearest palette entry.

Another good idea is to reduce graphics to 216 colors. In Paint Shop Pro, open up this graphic:
http://www.vdj.net/216.gif
and click on Image --> save palette. Then open up your graphics and set them to this palette.

When you reduce colors in your graphic editor, it will dither as well, but it will use a smarter dithering. It will look a thousand times better than letting Windows (or Mac OS) dither it cheaply. And all users, no matter how cheap their video card, will see the graphic as it was intended.

Different editors will vary, but should be similar. All systems of at least 256 colors will have these 216 colors in their system palette.

Justin
-- yes, Virginia, there are standards in the www! --

[hearts]

what a boring color chart.. I think everyone should upgrade http://www.aota.net/ubb/wink.gif

[Aaron]

Thanks for all the advise guys! I will be sure to put them to good use. http://www.aota.net/ubb/smile.gif

But back to the original topic...Does anyone know of an SSL server available, at least temporarily until Future Quest has their's ready?

Thanks again!
Aaron

[Del]

Aaron,

FQuest's SSL should be ready fairly soon, but I don't know just when. In the meantime, as much as I hate to suggest it (and as much as Andrew will hate me suggesting it), you could get a free account at Hypermart.net just for doing SSL until FQ is ready. The URL for the ssl server at hypermart is ugly and long, but works fairly well until better comes along.

(Sorry Terra, I know you hate the 'H' word)



------------------
Del
www.downinit.com (http://www.downinit.com)

da da da

[Justin]

What exactly do you need SSL for? I'm just curious, and if I knew what you needed it for, I might be able to come up with something.

Users of my program can register online with a credit card at RegNow, which I just provide a link to from my site, and they let me design the layout for the order page. It's almost seemless.

They do credit card orders for shareware or anything to be ordered online. http://www.regnow.com

If that's what you mean, anyway.

Justin

-- Knower of all things useless --

-- Is knower a werd?? --

-- hookt of fonix werkt fer me! --

-- I think I'm over my signature limit for a single post --

[Aaron]

Actually, I need it for a web site I am designing for a client. They sell high-quality decorative candles. (can be seen at http://www.chandlerscandle.com )

I need SSL for the order form so they can safely accept credit card orders over the internet.

Any help at all is greatly appreciated. http://www.aota.net/ubb/smile.gif
Thanks!
Aaron

[Terra]

ApacheSSL is actively being worked on right now... It is #2 on our priority list, with the 2nd round of upgrades taking Top priority...

We will be installing our second server to the new C-Block of IP's and working on transitioning the domains over... The ApacheSSL server will be an integral part of the new server, as I now have the freedom to finally install this puppy right... I tried and tried to get it working properly on the existing server, but failed when I didn't have the IP's to bind it to... This next network upgrade is going to solve that...

SSL will be the last major feature that we add to the server for about 1 or 2 months as we will be refocusing our attention to already open projects and bringing them to a close... Much work needs to be done, and the upgrade path we are on is very time consuming... I phear the 'IP Renumbering' word!

SSL customers with their own 'Server Cert' will be first in line, apprx mid-February and the community 'secure.FutureQuest.net' service being available last half of February...

There have been many setbacks over the course of January, and things finally seem to be back on track as we work with our NOC on getting everything positioned properly...

Another setback (sorta) was the Linux 2.2 Kernel release... I am upgrading our operations for the new kernel as *many* of the existing system programs need to be upgraded... I have determined that Linux 2.2.1 is ready for production use, and it's many improvements will be very beneficial to our overall operations, especially under peaktime loads... More info on the new kernel can be found at: www.linuxhq.com (http://www.linuxhq.com) ... I have just finished all the core upgrades and running them through stress testing... In a nutshell, my performance results, under heavy load, were nothing short of breathtaking... http://www.aota.net/ubb/biggrin.gif

Expect to see many kick-butt improvements over the next 4 months as we now have the capability to spread the load properly over multiple Daemons and Servers... Much of our slowness (during primetime) will begin to subside, and more power/flexibility will be possible now...

I have not been on the Forums much, because of all the work ahead of me to make our improvements a reality... My task list is 69 miles long, and none of them particularly easy...

In conclusion: SSL is ***HIGH*** priority with FutureQuest, and we are doing everything possible to expidite the process... Basically it falls into the constant email stress category -- 'Is it done yet???'... http://www.aota.net/ubb/wink.gif

--
Andrew Gillespie
Systems Designer
FutureQuest.net

[This message has been edited by ccTech (edited 02-04-99).]

[hearts]

Aaron

I have an answer to your question, i am not on my main unit, I will post here this afternoon. (I will edit this post with the url)

-----

hearts

[hearts]

Aron ...

here is the link ..

http://drivers.freedrive.com/about.htm

Click "Options".. that is where you will find added info on SSL. Now, I will tell you, I do not know anything much about this company, I stumbled across this by accident.
They seem kinda neat, they offer 20megs of free space and the SSL is $4.95 per month.

hope this helps?
----

hearts

[Aaron]

Thanks hearts,
I'll definitely check into it.

Aaron

[Aaron]

Thank you Andrew,
I know you guys are absolutely awesome! You've been working hard, and I completely understand. I was just curious as to when I should be able to expect it, so I could know what to do for my client's web site.

Thank you so much!
Keep up the EXCELLENT work.

Aaron

[Terra]

This thread is now being locked and moved as it now enters Alpha/Beta status...

Please check out the A/B/G Forum...

--Terra

[This message has been edited by ccTech (edited 03-13-99).]

[hearts]

hey, i know there is prob info somewhere else, but this is still an appropriate thread to ask..

Is there any updated info on the SSL? and if it is already in this forum, which thead?

thanks..
hearts