Under the Windows communication framework, applications do not themselves listen directly on ports for incoming http connections - rather they ask Windows to do this for them, and to pass on requests which "match" the requested URL pattern.  Whilst this works fine for unsecured (http) traffic, it causes complications for secure (https) traffic, since the destination URL is only known after the certificates and security parameters have been negotiated, and so these must be set at a system level, rather than by any one of the applications which might happen to be listening on the chosen port.

Therefore, to listen using https, it is necessary not only to use the XdsMtomServer.Listen or XdsSoapServer.Listen methods, but also the system must be configured using httpcfg (for XP/2003 systems) or netsh (for Vista/Windows 7/Server 2008 systems).

Step by step guide (for XP using httpcfg - netsh is similar)

• Install XP SP2 support tools for XP/2003 - get from here
  • Must select custom installation and include optional tools to get httpcfg
  • Will be netsh for Vista/Win7
• Import into the server
  • Use mmc snap in to import to the local machine account's personal store
  • Also use snap in to add the ca cert to trusted local roots
  • MMC instructions here
  • Big picture here - towards the bottom
• Import using httpcfg as follows, where:
  • XXX = port to listen on
  • YYYYY = thumbprint of chosen certificate
  • -f 2 means that a client certificate is requested
  • -m 1 means that the certificate will NOT be verified for revocation.

httpcfg set ssl -m 1 -i 0.0.0.0:XXX -f 2 -h YYYYY