As I continue to draft a clear a security statement for our website....

Talking to my CA this morning, I was looking to clear up in my mind how
this all works.  I understand how authentication with the certificate is
to work, and I thought I understood about what is encrypted and how it
is decrypted.  We (server side) have the only private key that can
decrypt info coming to us from browser clients.  I like this - they send
some passwords that authenticate themselves to our system and I would
rather they could not be sniffed.  However, testing with my test
certificate (that I made), my browser comes up with a dialog saying that
"passwords, credit card numbers" etc. will be passing to our server
unencrypted.  

Now my CA this morning said that this is only because I am using a test
certificate, and not a "real" one.  Is this true?

Now the second question.  The HTML that our java servlets serve up to
our clients out there with their browsers, is this, too, encrypted? 
Does it use my servers private key to encrypt, and the browser uses my
public key to decrypt?  Various items I have read elude to the fact that
there is a more secure way for our server to send out stuff.  I didn't
understand all I was being told this morning, but I also had a feeling
that the person to whom I was speaking did not have a full
understanding.

I would greatly appreciate any comments, answers, or being pointed is
certain directions.

TIA.
-- 
Keith Simpson
Skillview Technologies
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
(603)-382-9882
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