For most scripts, a normal installation of PHP is all that you need to get the job done. What happens, then, if all of a sudden you need to make a secure socket connection to another server? Well, this new tutorial is here to help you out.

In this Apache-mod_ssl-PHP-Howto they show you a quick and easy way to not only enable mod_ssl in Apache, but also compile it into PHP. Thankfully, it's a pretty cut and dry process without many things to watch out for. Of course, you can configure your PHP installation however you seet fit, but to get the SSL features working, you need to be sure and include the "--with-openssl" configure option. The rest is just a matter of simple configuration and testing the installation.

One of the few things you'll need to watch out for is the SSL certificate when you load the pages. Unfortunately, having a valid SSL certificate is something you'll have to go to the outside world for, but for just testing, a self-signed certificate will work. For more information on these, check out RedHat's explaination of the details.