Joomla Security: How to Turn on SSL for Site, Individual Pages, and Administrator

It's pretty easy to turn on SSL in Joomla 1.5. You can turn it on for Administrators only, for the whole site, or for individual pages. If you have an SSL certificate, you should at least turn it on for the Administrators. That way, you can protect your administrator logins. If you allow users to register, you should turn on SSL for the user login and registration.

Note: In order to use SSL in Joomla, you need a dedicated IP address AND an SSL certificate. Contact your host if you don't have these items.

To turn on Joomla SSL for your whole site

1. From the Joomla admin menu, select Site > Global Configuration > Server.
2. In the Force SSL list, select Entire Site.
   
   
3. Click Apply.
   This will force SSL for your entire website, Administrator and front end.

To turn on Joomla SSL for administrator only

1. From the Joomla admin menu, select Site > Global Configuration > Server.
2. In the Force SSL list, select Administrator Only.
   
   
3. Click Apply.
   This will force SSL for your entire website, Administrator and front end.

To turn on Joomla SSL for individual pages

Note: If you are going to use SSL for individual Joomla pages, it's a good idea to also turn on SSL for Administrator Only.

1. From the Joomla admin menu, select Menus > Main Menu
   
   Note: Your site might not use Main Menu. If not, select the menu that contains the link for which you want to turn on SSL. Also, if the link occurs in more than one menu, you need to repeat this procedure for each menu in which the link appears.
   
2. Click the link for which you want to turn on SSL.
   Joomla displays the Menu Item Edit screen.
3. On the right side of the screen, click Parameters (System) and from the SSL Enabled option, select On.
   
   
4. Click Apply and then test that link to make sure SSL is on for that link.
   Note: Once the SSL link is clicked, SSL will stay on until the user leaves the site or closes their browser.