hello all...i am trying to use SSL and when I set it up through global settings and put the address in my store gets all screwed up I mean it works but the theme and graphics are all messed up...I dont think it is SSL that is doing it I think it is the way I have to connect to it...when I change the SITE URL thats when it goes haywire...my site URL is www.camheadsets.com this works fine but when I try to go through my main domain to use SSL eg; www.steadicamnyc.com/camheadsets.com is when the sites gets all messed up....is there something that has to in the main domains root folder? i mean the store works but as i have said the theme and layout are a little off?
 
all help is appreciated

Forgive me if I'm being too basic, but just in case you missed any of these points...
 
1. You need to have the SSL set up for your website. Your hosting company will usually set it up for you for $50 to $150 per year. Don't use the default ssl that comes for free, or your site visitors will get a warning to not view the page.
 
2. Once ssl is set up you should be able to manually change http://webaddress.com to https:webaddress.com to see it working.
 
3. Go to System/Global settings in admin and scroll down to Secure Site Settings to check off which pages you want to appear as ssl.
 
good luck with it.

I have done this but I have to go through my main domain to connect to my private SSL cert and the way they I am supposed to do it is this way:www.steadicamnyc.com/camheadsets.com this is my secure address but when I change it in my site URL the store goes a little crazy it functions but no theme per se...do i need to put something in the steadicamnyc.com root folder????? so that everything is loaded up?

you need to have everything in BOTH folders
 
your secure folder & your public_html folder.
 
The reason your images and layout aren't working is because it's not picking up your stylesheet and images from the main folder....

One more comment, not from a techie point of view, just another person trying learn just-enough to get things to work properly. The 3 different web hosting companies I've used all made ssl fairly easy. Maybe there was such a folder as the one you speak of behind the scenes, but I sure never had to deal with it in this complicated way you mention. I only maintained the site in the public_html folder and made proper ssl settings in ViArt or my previous cart programs. I currently have a Thawte certificate, because that's who my hosting company uses. I am only paying $50/year since they buy certificates in bulk and pass along the savings. My hosting company fully set it up, I didn't have to struggle at all. another hosting company charged me $130/year.
 
The only tricky thing for me was when IE or Firefox would warn my customers my cart pages had both secure and unsecure content on the page. The problem went away when I changed a couple of my graphic callouts from http://site.com/images/graphic.jpg to https://etc., or used a relative callout like //images/graphic.jpg
 
Wow, I think I'd give up if I had to manually put things in two different folders???!!! (maybe I am not understanding) Again, good luck!