ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ:Secure server

This page is a how-to guide detailing a practice or process on the English Wikipedia.

WP:SEC

This page in a nutshell: ଛାଞ୍ଚ:Unordered list

Wikimedia has a secure server that can be used to access the different Wikimedia projects with an encrypted connection.

To use the secure server you can go to its start page: https://secure.wikimedia.org/

To view this page through the secure server follow this link: Wikipedia:Secure server

Not especially secure

The secure server isn't especially secure for several reasons:

All images are loaded unencrypted from the normal servers. In some browsers, this may cause warning messages about mixing secure and unsecure content (see e.g. this discussion).
Some links take you back to the normal servers. (Learn more in the sections below.)
Some CSS and JavaScript files might be loaded from the normal servers, but currently most scripts are loaded through the secure server if that is the server you are using.

But still very useful

There are several situations when the secure server can be useful:

Using the secure server gives some protection against eavesdropping, and most of all it protects against others snooping your Wikipedia password or cookie (for example with tools like Firesheep). Eavesdropping is a problem especially when connecting through a wireless network, a company or school network, or a public computer such as an Internet café.
Some companies, schools and ISPs have proxy servers that meddle with the connection between your browser and Wikipedia. This can make editing impossible. Connecting through the secure server can bypass such proxies.
Some schools, companies and even entire countries have blocked Wikipedia, but these blocks can sometimes be circumvented by using the secure server.
European users are connected to the Wikipedia servers in Amsterdam. When the Amsterdam servers are down or unreachable, European users can bypass the problem by connecting to the secure server, since the secure server is located in Florida.
Some users have a bad Internet connection that intermittently mangles characters. This can cause all kinds of weird problems while editing pages. This mostly happens when connected over wireless or mobile networks. Using the secure server fixes this, since the secure connection has much better error detection than the normal connections.

Logged in or not

You don't have to be logged in to use the secure server. However, if you have a Wikipedia account, be aware that the secure server handles login separately from the normal servers, so when you go to the secure server for the first time, you won't be logged in there. However, you can log in there using your normal Wikipedia account, and you can be logged in to the secure server and the normal servers at the same time.

Local links

When using the secure server, most local links automatically use the secure server, unless they are hardcoded links.

However, there is no need to hardcode local links. If you need to add query parameters to a link, for instance when making links to special pages, then you can use the magic word "{{fullurl:}}". For instance, here's a link to a search for the words "secure server":

[{{fullurl:Special:Search | search=secure+server&fulltext=Search&ns4=1&ns5=1 }}  Search]

Search

If you view this page when using the secure server, then that link is automatically a secure link.

Links to other projects

Like wikilinks within Wikipedia (see previous section), InterWikimedia links, i.e. wikilinks to other Wikimedia projects such as Wiktionary, are usually adjusted to the secure server.

There are also other ways to reach the other projects through the secure server.

The start page of the secure server links to the English versions of the different projects: https://secure.wikimedia.org/

To make a link on a page or in a template you can use the {{sec link auto}} template. That template shows a secure link if the user is using the secure server, otherwise it shows a normal link.

There is also the {{sec link}} template that always creates a secure link. It can make both local links and links to other Wikimedia projects. You can for instance put that template on your user page and feed it the appropriate parameters to make a link to the project, language and page that you want.

If you need to reach a non-English version of one of the projects, then {{sec link}} and {{sec link auto}} can do that too, but you can also do it by hand:

First go to the English version of the project by using the start page of the secure server. Then manually edit the URL in the address bar to change the part that selects the language. For instance, the German language prefix is "de", so change this:

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/ (English Wikipedia)

To this:

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/de/wiki/ (German Wikipedia)

After you made such a link, you can save it in your browser's bookmarks, or save it on your user page. But don't put such hardcoded links in other pages or templates, since users who are connected to the normal servers probably don't want to be sent to the secure server. Then instead use the {{sec link auto}} template.

External links

The HTTPS Everywhere add-on for the Firefox browser (by the Electronic Frontier Foundation) ensures that you will always automatically use the secure server for Wikimedia projects (and for some other sites)