I am trying to host 2 sites on a single IP address and they need to be accessed via SSL however the majority of my users use Internet Explorer on Windows XP meaning using multiple SSLs with SNI may prevent them getting access.
I was wondering if I could use a multiple virtual hosts but still use a single SSL certificate and avoid SNI ?
Alternatively how feasible is it for me to install two Apache webserver instances, each its own DocumentRoot and own SSL certificate and for me to simply use the first Apache webserver as an entry point to entertain some requests and to redirect others to the other SSLed Apache instance ?
Could I potentially use the Windows Host file (Windows 2008 Server) to redirect incoming requests to the intended Apache Server instead of using VirtualHosts ?
Apologies if I have confused concepts.
You can try to purchase an X.509 certificate with two domains in it. I don't know what particular CAs do this, but I also don't see why they would refuse. You need to ask their support, though.
Your idea to redirect some requests to another server residing on a different port sounds good as well, though you will have to use two different certificates for different domain names, of course.
Finally if your second domain can be something like additional.mydomain.com , you have greater chance to buy a certificate issued for mydomain.com + www.mydomain.com + additional.mydomain.com (this can be a wildcard certificate or a certificate with additional subdomain names).