E-commerce is a new and exciting way to trade. It allows you to sell to customers that would have been usually out of reach. E-commerce comes with a major problem, it is usually very expensive to maintain. Connected Hosting clients have a new way of receiving orders securely from your website, and its absolutely free with the Small Business and Advanced Business plans offered by Connected Hosting .
The system allows for intergration with your business' existing EFTPOS/swipe card facility. Orders can be securely encrypted on the server with a program called GnuPG and then be sent to your email address, and decrypted on your computer. Once the details of the order have been decrypted your computer you can process the purchase as you would any mail or telephone order.
GnuPG is a encryption program that uses a public/private key system. It allows for you to encrypt with a public key and decrypt with a private key. You generate the key pair on your computer and send the public key to the server. This will encrypt the data for you. Only your private key, residing on your computer can decrypt the message.
GnuPG (GPG) is a freeware command line program which is difficult to use alone. Connected Hosting has created software to make this application easier to use. The GPG Suite is a set of programs that allow you to generate a key set and decrypt the incoming messages.
Connected Hosting also has programs on the server that can validate credit card details before they are sent to you. You will not find a cheaper way to accept credit cards over the Internet.
