Image URLS & SSL warnings

[inovermyhead]

Good morning, all ... it's silly question time again.
Have a situation I need to understand. Earlier today rhys100 posted an item saying his site was getting SSL messages and the solution was to take hard coded URLS for images out of his sideboxes, or to code them with the https protocol.
This is the first time I've heard anything about this and want to make sure I understand.
So what I'm hearing is that if a page is to be displayed as secure, that is https://www.--- etc., then no urls can be used on the page that point to another domain, and must be either addressed relatively to the secure page, or use the secure protocol https if hardcoded. I imagine this applies to urls for any media, not just images and deviation from this results in the secure pages throwing warning messages.
Please let me know if this is correct. Thanks for setting me straight on this.
inovermyhead

[schoolboy]

HTTPS is the "section" of a webserver that ensures that data transmission between the host and the client (webserver and your customer), is encrypted.

If any resources (web pages, websites, images, files, etc) are called OUTSIDE of this https, the BROWSER will alert the view to the fact that some items are "insecure".

For the most part, it's an annoying popup, but many people get frightened when they see this, and may elect NOT to shop with you.

To avoid this, one needs to be careful how one "inserts" URL's and other links in your webshop - particularly the HTTPS parts.

If, for example, you have a sidebox that calls an image from somewhere else on the internet (you're cousin's website in Alaska), you would probably have to reference this image as:-

<img src="http://www.my_cousins_website_in_alaska.com/images/hotdog.jpg>

This is where the problem can creep in, because, as you can see, there is a HARD CODED link (http://www.my_cousins_website_in_alaska.com) that calls a resource OUTSIDE the https.

[inovermyhead]

Thanks for the fast reply, schoolboy.

I think you've confirmed what my take was. I guess the best thing to do is never use any hotlinked files where they might be used in a secure page, always copy them to your site, even the ones for the link exchange where they want you to hotlink them. And if you hard code them, use the https:

Thanks again,
inovermyhead