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Privacy is a concern for many web-based applications. The most frequently used technology for addressing privacy is page-based encryption using SSL. Web Performance TrainerTM provides support for recording and playing pages encrypted using SSL. Significant effort has been made to make this support transparent to the user. However, there are a few details that may be useful when using this feature. In addition, for those who are not familiar with the process of accepting site certificates in a web browser, those steps are summarized here as a reminder. If you have never performed this procedure in your browser, we recommend that you consult your browser's documentation for a detailed instructions.
Configuration
Short for Secure Sockets Layer, a protocol developed by Netscape for transmitting private documents via the Internet. SSL works by using a private key to encrypt data that's transferred over the SSL connection. Both Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer support SSL, and many Web sites use the protocol to obtain confidential user information, such as credit card numbers. By convention, Web pages that require an SSL connection start with https: instead of http:. For more information regarding SSL, the Internet Draft specification is a good start.
Configuration
Configuring Web Performance TrainerTM to support SSL is not necessary. However, it is necessary to correctly configure the browser to the correct port for SSL transactions. Web Performance TrainerTM uses port 8082 for SSL transactions by default (this may be changed in the Edit->Properties dialog). See the manual section on Browser Configuration to ensure that your browser is correctly configured for using SSL with Web Performance TrainerTM.
Generating Keys
Since Web Performance TrainerTM must be able to decrypt the transactions sent between the browser and the server, it must generate it's own certificate for communicating with the browser. The first time that a secured page is requested from a particular server, Web Performance TrainerTM will generate a certificate to send to the browser. This process is performed externally to Web Performance TrainerTM, so on some platforms (like Windows) you will see a window appear similar to the one shown below. Certificate generation is a very CPU intensive process and can take over a minute on slow processors. As a result, you should expect to see very slow response in the browser for the first page. Fortunately, this is only required the first time that a website is browsed. If the certificate is permanently accepted into the browser (see following sections), repeated visits to the same site will re-use the certificate and the certificate generation step will be skipped.
Key Files
The certificates generated by Web Performance TrainerTM are stored in the Web Performance TrainerTM installation directory in files called "(servername).ks". If it becomes necessary to generate a new certificate (for instance, a certificate has expired), the corresponding key file may be deleted. Restart Web Performance TrainerTM and browse the website to force generation of a new certificate.
Accepting Certificates (Netscape)
Accepting a certificate in Netscape is relatively simple. Netscape will automatically present the user with a wizard for the process. Except for the screen shown below we recommend that the default options for all the screens presented (e.g. push the 'next' and 'finish' buttons). On the screen shown below (Netscape 4.7) we recommend that you accept the certificate permanently - to alleviate the need for regenerating the certificates each time the browser is re-opened. Please consult the Nestscape support website for more details about certificates and the import/acceptance process.
Accepting Certificates (Internet Exploder)
Accepting a certificate in IE is slightly less straightforward, because the defaults generally lead you to reject the certificate. The examples show here are for IE 5.00.2919. However, the IE browser versions change quickly. Please consult the Microsoft support website for more details about certificates and the import/acceptance process. The first dialog presented by IE asks if you want to proceed (shown below). Selecting 'No' will reject the certificate. Selecting 'Yes' will accept the certificate, but only temporarily. We recommend viewing the certificate, which will allow you to permanently accept the certificate.
IE will now show you details about the certificate. In order for the certificate to be permanently accepted, select the "Install certificate" option.
The remaining steps are self-explanatory. The default response may be used for the remaining dialogs, except this one:
Be sure to select "Yes" to add the certificate to the Certificate store.
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