We know you\u2019re here to learn all about what\u2019s known as an SNI certificate (which is actually a reference to SSL\/TLS certificates<\/a> and their relationship with the server name indication protocol) \u2014 and we\u2019ll get to that momentarily. But before we do that, let\u2019s take a moment to imagine that you\u2019re a web server. (We\u2019re absolutely serious here, so close your eyes and try to be the best version of server that you can be.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, a user enters a website that they want\nto visit and you, as you always do, try to connect shake hands with their web browser\nand facilitate HTTPS connection to the website that user has requested to\naccess. As you\u2019re trying to fetch the website details through IP address, you\ncome across a big problem: You see six different websites hosted under a single\nIP address! You have no idea what to do. You\u2019re left confused and scratching\nyour metaphoric head, unsure of which site they want to access. That\u2019s not a\ngood sight for any web server, is it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s where server name indication (and the\nso-called \u201cSNI SSL certificate\u201d that people come looking for) comes in to help\nyou out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n SNI is an extension to the SSL\/TLS protocol\nthat allows multiple SSL\/TLS certificates to be hosted on a single IP address.\nThis is done by inserting an HTTP header (a virtual domain) in the SSL\/TLS\nhandshake. This process allows you (the web server) to see which website is\nrequested by the client (the web browser) and you can pave the way for a secure\nconnection to the right website. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Before SNI, there was no way you could host\nmultiple SSL\/TLS certificates on a single IP. Therefore, you had to purchase\nseparate IP address for every SSL\/TLS website you wanted to host on your web\nserver. This, of course, was a costly affair. But as there was no option at the\ntime, people didn\u2019t have a choice. As a consequence, IPV4 IP addresses \u2014 which\nwere limited in their numbers (four billion) \u2014 started getting consumed\nrapidly. This posed a great danger of exhaustion of IPV4 addresses. The\nexhaustion was bound to happen, but the point was to make it slow so that\npeople have enough time to migrate to IPV6. <\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s what SNI did. Now we have more than 340 undecillion<\/em> unique IPV6 IP addresses \u2014 that\u2019s 340 trillion, trillion trillion, or more than 340,282,366,920,938,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000<\/a> \u2014 and they do seem to be just enough (for now). J<\/p>\n\n\n\n From a distance, SNI and a multi-domain (SAN) SSL certificate<\/a> might seem like the same thing, but there\u2019s a huge difference between both \u2014 even if they help you achieve the same thing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n SNI, as we saw, allows you to host multiple\nSSL\/TLS certificates for multiple websites under a single IP address. This means\nthat each website will have its own SSL\/TLS certificate. A multi-domain SSL\ncertificate (SAN), on the other hand, allows you to secure multiple websites using\na single SSL\/TLS certificate under one IP address. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Therefore, it\u2019s possible to use both SNI\nand SAN at the same time. If you want to secure multiple websites with a single\nSSL certificate, a SAN SSL certificate is the option for you. If you want to\nuse a distinct SSL certificate for each different website, you need to\nimplement SNI. Quite simple, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Protect multiple domains with a single Multi Domain\/SAN SSL Certificate from brands like GeoTrust, Symantec, and Thawte.<\/p>\n Shop SAN Certificates<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n Yes, they love SNI for SSL certificates. When introduced, there was a big concern about scalability as there weren\u2019t many browsers who could support SNI. But that time is long gone. In 2017, Akamai reported<\/a> that almost 98% of the clients requesting HTTPS support SNI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, as you can see, there isn’t actually an “SNI certificate.” But now you understand how the SNI protocol works with SSL certificates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What is server name indication? Let\u2019s explain what it means in layman\u2019s terms We know you\u2019re here to learn all about what\u2019s known as an SNI certificate (which is actually<\/p>\nSo, What is Server Name Indication Or what is SNI in SSL??<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Benefits of SNI for SSL\/TLS<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Isn\u2019t SNI the Same as Multi-Domain (SAN) SSL?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Save Up to 71% on SAN Certificates from RapidSSLonline!<\/h2>\n
Do Browsers Support SNI?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n