This is an optional step. However, if you plan to enable client certificates on the portal site, you must require SSL. For information about client certificates, see the paper "Enabling Client Certificates and Using Client Certificates When Crawling Content with SharePoint Portal Server 2003" on the TechNet site for SharePoint Portal Server 2003.

If you require SSL on one front-end Web server, you must require it on all front-end Web servers.

At this point in the process, SSL is enabled. You can still use Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) to access your site. However, if you want to require SSL, you will no longer be able to use HTTP and must use Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS).

1. Open Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.
2. In the console tree, expand the computer name node.
3. Expand the Web Sites node, right-click Default Web Site, and then click Properties.
4. On the Directory Security tab, in the Secure communications section, click Edit.
5. In the Secure Communications dialog box, select the Require secure channel (SSL) check box, and then click OK.
6. Click OK to close the Default Web Site Properties dialog box.
7. This step is critical! In the Inheritance Overrides dialog box, click Select All, and then click OK.

    Warning   If you do not accept the inheritance overrides, you must remove the certificate, remove the requirement for SSL, and then start from the first step, "Ensure That You Can Access the Home Page of the Portal Site," in this paper. See the "Troubleshooting" section at the end of this paper for the steps to remove the certificate and remove the requirement for SSL.