SSL needed for socket communication?

My Apache server is currently not configured to use SSL, and I do not have a certificate. There is a possibility that I will be creating a script to send POST data to another company's web service, and that company requires the connection to be via SSL. The logical way for me to do this seems to be to use a socket to fire off the POST data at the other server, but I am not sure what is required to connect via SSL. Since browsers can do it without certificates, I would assume that I don't need a certificate to do this (only for if I want to use SSL with clients connecting to my server), but if someone could confirm this and/or point me in the direction of the functions that allow me to use SSL that would be greatly appreciated. Erik ---- Erik Price Web Developer Temp Media Lab, H.H. Brown pricee@hhbrown.com