HttpWebRequest and SSL

I need to communicate with a web server using https just as a browser would. What steps are necessary to achieve this using HttpWebRequest, is it as simple as the URI beginning with 'https://' or do I need to supply some credentials of some kind I dont have a certificate myself (the server does) so I wont be using client authentication but I assume this is how browsers operate. Will data be encrypted in both directions using https

Also, is there a simple way to check that information is being sent encrypted I'd like to double check that the encryption is happening OK before I start sending credit card details over the wire.

Thanks in advance.

Colin

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HttpWebRequest and SSL

Va1era
Thanks.
I am glad it worked for you
Rufus Leonard
1. You don't need a client cert if you are not using client certs to authenticate to the server as to who the client is
2. You don't need any other credentials unless the server is demanding them after SSL connection is established which is not unusual
3. You do need to have the certificate root's certificate on your machine. This is to make sure that who ever issued the cert to the server is trusted on the client.
Typically the verisign, etc are already trusted and their root CA certs should be there. Otherwise you need to explicitly install the cert (ROOT CA) on your machine.
one way to check is to make sure that the IE works fine and then proceed
4. Data will be encrypted on both directions
5. One way to check is to capture the network minitor's capture file
The other way is to get a system.net trace
Guidance for both are in my blog
http://blogs.msdn.com/dgorti
Harlow Burgess
Thanks for the reply Durgaprasad. I've since run a network sniffer and satisfied myself that data is being encrypted. To be honest I'm amazed that doing something like this is so simple from the developer's point of view, hats off to MS on that one
Nick Bennett
I have the same question. I need to send a request to a payment gateway to authorize a payment. I am just using the HttpWebRequest class and createing a uri with "https://". Do I need to do anything else to send the data encrypted If no, who takes care of the encryption

I have windows xp, so cannot install the Network Monitor, is there any other way I can sniff the web request sent using HttpWebRequest class

Thanks in advance.
HttpWebRequest and SSL

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