| Alex van Denzel 2005-08-10, 7:25 am |
| John Yovas wrote:
> My question was difference between using HTTP and HTTPS with certicom with
> Ultralite clients. To achive TLS with both HTTP and HTTPS we need certicom
> so what is the real difference ?
TLS is similar to SSL, it encrypts the TCP/IP connection between end-nodes.
+----------------------+
| TCP/IP connection |
| +------------------+ |
| | TLS encryption | |
| | +--------------+ | |
| | | Payload | | |
| | | ... | | |
| | +--------------+ | |
| +------------------+ |
+----------------------+
HTTP is a protocol over TCP/IP where different types of data can be
transferred between end-nodes over roughly the same channel.
+----------------------+
| TCP/IP connection |
| +------------------+ |
| | HTTP protocol | |
| | +--------------+ | |
| | | Payload | | |
| | | ... | | |
| | +--------------+ | |
| +------------------+ |
+----------------------+
HTTPS is HTTP over TLS (or SSL). In this case an TLS or SSL connection
in built between the end-nodes, and data is transfered over this
connection, using the HTTP protocol.
+-----------------------+
| TCP/IP connection |
| +-------------------+ |
| | TLS encryption | |
| | +---------------+ | |
| | | HTTP protocol | | |
| | | +-----------+ | | |
| | | | Payload | | | |
| | | | ... | | | |
| | | +-----------+ | | |
| | +---------------+ | |
| +-------------------+ |
+-----------------------+
TLS over HTTP means, encrypt the data with TLS, and then send the
encrypted data with HTTP to the other node.
+------------------------+
| TCP/IP connection |
| +--------------------+ |
| | HTTP protocol | |
| | +----------------+ | |
| | | TLS encryption | | |
| | | +------------+ | | |
| | | | Payload | | | |
| | | | ... | | | |
| | | +------------+ | | |
| | +----------------+ | |
| +--------------------+ |
+------------------------+
The issue with Certicom is, that the libraries used by the UltraLite and
dbmlsync clients for TLS encryption are provided by Certicom, and you
need a license for it.
To use plain HTTP, you don't need Certicom.
(anyone, please correct me if I'm wrong, or left something out)
--
Alex
|