Cheese & Wine Unlimited understands your concerns about online security. Because we share your concerns, we work closely with our host and software vendor to keep our site a highly secure ordering environment – so you can shop with confidence.

The result is a Web site that offers you the high level of service, convenience and trustworthiness our customers have come to expect from us.

The Secure Order Process

Using Q5 Media's Spiral software, in conjunction with features built into popular browser software, our site provides advanced security for your online purchases. The following section describes how the secure order process works, from start to finish.

1. Starting Your Order
Every purchase at is secure, and clicking a Checkout button on the Shopping Cart page is all it takes to get started. The security features are automatic; you don't need to do anything special to invoke them.

2. Making a Positive ID
Once you've clicked the Checkout button, your browser looks for a digital certificate to confirm that it is communicating with Cheese & Wine Unlimited. Once a positive ID is made, your order continues.

We use Thawte software to enable the use of digital certificates. For your security, the verification process happens in the background every time you place an order on our site.

3. Entering Secure Mode
Next, your computer and our server begin communicating in secure mode, sending data back and forth in an encrypted format.

At this point you may see a browser alert about security, which some browsers display when you are about to receive a secure document. It's fine to click OK (or Continue) to proceed – it simply means that you will begin receiving pages in a highly secure encrypted format.

After your browser has entered secure mode, we'll ask you to enter, or if you're using Express Checkout, to confirm, your credit card information. The encryption features of browser software are exceptionally powerful and ensure the security of this data as it is transmitted to our server. Our site makes use of the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol and 128-bit strong encryption to provide the highest level of security available.

4. My Order Is Complete. What Happens Next?
Security measures continue even after you've placed your order, as we process your order in a highly secure computing environment.

Security: Watching It Work

The most popular Web browsers, Internet Explorer, Netscape Communicator (aka Navigator) and Mozilla, use clear visual symbols to let you know whether or not they are in secure mode. The symbols (usually an icon of a padlock) are displayed either at the bottom left or bottom right of your browser window. Another indication that a browser is in secure mode can be found in the Web site address that your browser displays. The address will begin 'http://' in standard, non-secure mode and 'https://' in secure mode. The 's' stands for 'secure.

Continuing to Browse

Once your order is complete, it's perfectly safe for you to continue to browse our site in standard mode. In fact, once you exit the ordering process, your browser will automatically revert to this slightly faster mode of communication.

What If I Make a Purchase with a Browser That Doesn't Support Security?

You can't. Because we don't want you ever to have to worry about ordering from our site without a secure connection, we've designed our system so that it will process orders only with browsers that support secure mode.

Please note that the latest versions of Netscape's, Mozilla's and Microsoft's browsers have security features, and all are free for downloading. Visit the company's Web site for details.

If You Forget Your Password

In the event you forget your account password, we offer an online process that verifies your identity and allows you to enter a new password. When you complete this process, we take an extra measure of security and delete any credit card information saved in your accountt. Of course, you may reenter your credit card information once you've entered a new password. (If you simply change your password after logging in, saved credit card information remains intact.)

For More Information

We've worked hard to bring you a secure online ordering environment. We hope you'll contact us with your questions, comments or concerns.

Also, please read our Privacy Policy for more information on how we protect your privacy.