1. Obtain certificates and keys for your application. See Obtaining Certificates.

2. Initialize the Winsock library, if you are using Windows, by calling the RWWinSockInfo constructor (see the SourcePro API Reference Guide).

3. Initialize the Secure Sockets package and seed the random number generator (if necessary). See Initializing the Secure Sockets Package.

4. Create an instance of class RWSecureSocketContext. See Creating the Secure Socket Context. Initialize the context using the setIdentity() function for a server, or the prepareToAuthenticate() function for a client.

5. Construct a certificate, if you are writing a server application. See Constructing a Certificate and Checking the Validity of a Certificate.

6. Create an RWInetAddr to bind or connect to.

7. Construct an RWSecureSocket, RWSecureSocketPortal, or RWSecureSocketListener using the context and address created in step 6. See Using RWSecureSocket, RWSecureSocketPortal, and RWSecureSocketListener.

8. Write an application that sends and receives secure messages.