hi all,

I´m searching for a way to use HTTPS without installing a certificate on the connecting client.
-> have apache running and a directory-directive with SSLRequireSSL
-> build my own CA and configured it in httpd.conf
=> all fine

now, is it possible and how, that the client (browser) which connects to my site (with own-build CA!) accepts the SSL connection or can this only be realised with official certificates?
hope someone can help and u understand my intention ;-)

Not sure I understand... but it sounds like you just need to get yourself a signed certificate. Try going to www.freessl.com. The name is a little misleading. I don't think they actually offer free certs. But you can pay like $50 and get a cert that is signed by a reputable authority and will be valid for 1 year. This way, when your server presents the cert to the client, they will already have knowledge of the cert authority and the end user should not see any warnings.

If you dont want to pay the money, I think your only option is to sign the cert yourself and live with the warning messages on the clients end. They will still be protected by SSL, but the warning may give some people (read: inexperienced users) some concerns.

Yes, all ok. The problem is M$ IE. with other browsers theres no problem,because if you come to a site, you can accept the cert (permanently) and all is good. But the IE DON´T always "save" the cert correctly, so the warning messages are inconvenient.
the only way seems to import the selfsigned cert manually on each client! :-(

me again,

theres a new problem. have 2 clients here (winxp, IE) with no certs or CA entry imported.
when trying to connect to https://my.domain.tld they got a DNS-error message (host could not be found) !!!!???

after import of cert all went fine, so it must be the cert or some config of httpd !!!???

hope for answers ;-)