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The Complete SSL and TLS Guide: HTTP to HTTPS

Configure Cloudflare, FREE Let's Encrypt SSL/TLS certificate, NGINX and Apache web servers, create CSR SSL request

Bestseller

Created byBogdan Stashchuk | 300K Students Worldwide | MBA, PhD

Last updated 3/2026

English

Arabic [Auto],English [Auto],

What you'll learn

Learn how to install SSL/TLS Certificate on the web server
What is the difference between HTTP and HTTPS
What is CA (Certificate Authority) and how chain of trust is built
How TLS certificate is structured (subject name, issuer name, validity period, signature etc.)
Let's Encrypt free certificates that are valid 90 days. Certbot ACME client for automatic certificate issuing and renewal
Cloudflare reverse proxy with free SSL certificates
CSR (Certificate Signing Request), domain validation and certificate installation
Install and configure NGINX web server for SSL/TLS encryption

Course content

14 sections • 112 lectures • 10h 55m total length

Intro3:25
Learn to enable https, deploy ssl and tls certificates (let's encrypt, certbot) with nginx or apache on ubuntu, and explore encryption fundamentals, hashing algorithms, and elliptic curve cryptography.
Let's get connected! Join the Learning Community0:26

Section 1 Introduction1:18
In this section I'll explain the difference between HTTP and HTTPS and importance of usage of HTTPS.
Overview of researches dedicated to SSL, TLS and HTTPS9:06
Analyze research on SSL, TLS and HTTPS that shows rising adoption, with more than half of sites using HTTPS by 2018 and that secure setup does not guarantee full security.
Overview of the certificates of some popular websites6:10
Difference between HTTP and HTTPS8:37
Analyzing traffic using Wireshark5:10
TCP/IP stack by example7:51
Analyzing HTTP protocol using Wireshark6:05
Analyzing HTTPS and TLS using Wireshark5:23

Section 2 Introduction0:34
Symmetric Key Encryption1:59
Symmetric Key Encryption Algorithms4:12
Hashing Overview6:57
MD5 hashing algorithm5:21
SHA hashing algorithm and HMAC overview5:32
Asymmetric keys overview2:15
Encryption using asymmetric keys2:55
Explore how asymmetric keys use a public key to encrypt data and a private key to decrypt, ensuring only the owner can read the message.
Signing data using assymmetric keys4:37
RSA Overview2:29
PKI - Public Key Infrastructure Overview3:52
Certificate overview4:37

Section 3 Introduction0:58
Installing OpenSSL1:17
Using OpenSSL for RSA keys generation9:06
Exploring certificate of Instagram10:11
Exploring certificate of Google4:38
Exploring certificate of Comodo5:58
Analyze comodo.com's certificate to understand the certificate chain with root and intermediate authorities, single-domain cert for comodo.com, extended validation details, and sha-256 with rsa signatures.
Root CA and root certificates in the OS8:16
How Chain of Trust is built8:30
Verifying chain of certificates4:56
Verifying SSL certificate and certificates chain10:53
PKI, Chain of trust and certificates summary3:30
Certificate domain scopes2:55

Section 4 Introduction0:48
Introduction to the SSL and TLS2:44
History and versions of the SSL and TLS7:15
Trace the history and versions of SSL and TLS, note that SSL is deprecated, and advise using TLS certificates, with TLS 1.2 and 1.3 enabled on web servers.
Why RSA is not used for data encryption in HTTPS3:48
How TLS session is established4:36
Analyzing TLS session setup using Wireshark13:12
Overview of cipher suites5:05
Encryption key generation by the web browser4:15
Explain how a browser obtains an encryption key without diffie-hellman by encrypting a random key with the server's public RSA key, using the certificate for authentication.
Delivering encryption key using Diffie Hellman key exchange3:14
Explore how TLS uses Diffie-Hellman to deliver keys and create symmetric keys on both sides during a public exchange, with certificate verification and protection against man in the middle attacks.
Diffie Hellman overview2:48
Diffie-Hellman enables two parties to generate a shared key over an insecure connection without sending the key, using one-way functions, with standard mod operation and elliptic-curve variants for TLS.
Modulus operation2:38
Explain the modulus operation and its remainder concept with examples, show its one-way property, and connect how Diffie-Hellman uses modulus for secure key exchange.
Diffie Hellman algorithm8:38
Elliptic Curve Cryptography Overview1:53
Point Addition on Elliptic Curve5:47
Multiple Point Addition4:40
Point Doubling and Optimization5:58
Elliptic Curve Discrete Log Problem3:26
Comparing formulas2:50
ECDHE - Elliptic Curve Diffie Hellman Exchange5:47
Exploring ECDHE with ECDSA9:57

Section 5 Introduction0:18
Free domains overview1:56
Setting up free domain and hosting using GitHub Pages9:43
Exploring TLS session with our website at Github.io - PART 18:10
Explore how a TLS session secures a GitHub.io site by examining a multi-domain certificate, its SANs, issuer chain, and the TLS handshake, including client hello and server hello.
Exploring TLS session with our website at Github.io - PART 28:15

Section 6 Introduction0:38
Planning next steps with Paid Domain1:59
Buying a domain10:55
Setting up free hosting12:19
Set up free hosting, connect your domain to infinityfree, configure name servers, and test DNS resolution as you prepare to install a TLS certificate to secure your site.
Overview of the TLS settings at the free hosting5:06
OPTIONAL - Trying to install free Let's Encrypt TLS certificate on free hosting16:02

Section 7 Introduction0:50
VPS vs Dedicated Server6:44
Hosting Services Overview - PART 16:33
Explore popular paid hosting providers—Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and Digital Ocean—with a focus on Amazon EC2 pricing, free tiers, spot and reserved instances, and scalable configurations.
Hosting Services Overview - PART 28:42
Buying a droplet at DigitalOcean10:36
Launching Wordpress website with HTTPS12:32
Exploring our brand new TLS Certificate6:51
Finishing Wordpress installation3:15
Let's Encrypt and Certbot Overview9:57
Exploring TLS certificates via shell11:46
Exploring certbot configuration and testing renewal12:11
What we have got so far2:24

Section 8 Introduction0:29
Reverse Proxy and Cloudflare5:34
Discover how Cloudflare acts as a reverse proxy to hide IP addresses and cache pages, saving bandwidth and reducing latency. Cloudflare offers free TLS certificates on a free plan.
Overview of the current setup1:18
Moving our website to Cloudflare8:44
Exploring free TLS certificate from Cloudflare3:33
Exploring TLS settings at Cloudflare5:20
Explore how Cloudflare manages edge and origin TLS certificates, explains universal SSL, age certificates, auto renewal, and the difference between flexible, full, and full strict modes.
Cloudflare SSL Operation Modes14:27
Flexible SSL Operation Mode at Cloudflare13:22
Off SSL Operation Mode at Cloudflare6:51

Requirements

Basic computer knowledge
Any computer (Mac or PC)

Description

This course is all about securing websites with SSL/TLS certificates.

Become a master of HTTPS, Let's Encrypt, Cloudflare, NGINX and SSL/TLS Certificates.

This is the most complete practical SSL guide here on Udemy that includes tons of practical activities. All practice exercises are performed on a real domain and real hosting and finally you will get production ready solution with HTTPS setup and redirection of HTTP to HTTPS. You can have zero knowledge about computer networks, encryption, configuration of web servers. All will be taught from scratch, from simple setup to complex solution. If you want to get deep knowledge of SSL and HTTPS this course is for you!

We will start by exploring basics of symmetric encryption algorithms like AES, asymmetric encryption RSA, hashing protocols MD5 and SHA. Also I will explain you fundamentals of computer networks, TCP/IP stack and for that we will use Wireshark traffic analyzer.

You will learn what is the structure of the SSL/TLS certificate. Also you will understand why CAs (Certificate Authorities) are needed and how chain of trust is built.

In practice sections we will perform multiple practice activities:

Buy a domain and configure DNS settings
Use Certbot ACME client to automatically obtain free SSL certificate from Let's Encrypt
With help of OpenSSL generate RSA keys, self-signed certificates
Secure Wordpress with Apache using SSL/TLS certificates
Create CSR (Certificate Signing Request) by OpenSSL and submit CSR to CA server
Configure Cloudflare for your domain and setup different SSL modes of operations
Install and configure NGINX web server for SSL/TLS certificates
Migrate from HTTP to HTTPS
Redirect all traffic using HTTP 301 redirect from HTTP to HTTPS

With this course you will get lifetime-long access to 100 lectures and tens of practical exercises. After the course you will become a guru of SSL and TLS encryption and will be able easily obtain and install SSL certificates on your web servers.

You will also get 30-days money-back guarantee. No questions asked!

Don't wait and join the course now!

Who this course is for:

Owners of any websites
DevOps Engineers
Web developers
Network Engineers
JavaScript developers

The Complete SSL and TLS Guide: HTTP to HTTPS

What you'll learn

Explore related topics

Course content

Course Introduction2 lectures • 4min

Introduction to the HTTPS and TLS8 lectures • 50min

Encryption and hashing overview12 lectures • 45min

RSA, Certificates and Chain of Trust12 lectures • 1hr 11min

SSL, TLS and HTTPS20 lectures • 1hr 39min

Launching TLS secured website with free domain and hosting5 lectures • 28min

Custom domain with free hosting6 lectures • 47min

Free TLS certificate (Let's Encrypt) at paid hosting12 lectures • 1hr 32min

Cloudflare with free TLS certificate9 lectures • 1hr

Configuring NGINX web server and installing TLS certificate7 lectures • 55min

Requirements

Description

Who this course is for: