How to install apache in your home folder(i.e as a user) and use ssl for the same    
 Make a directory say "apache" in your home directory    mkdir apache
  
 Copy the http tar file into the directory apache
  
 Untar the same in apache directory    
cd apache
    
tar -xvf http-2.0.59.tar
    
This creates a folder "http-2.0.59" in apache directory
 
 
 Now follow following steps :
   
cd http-2.0.59

   
./configure --prefix=/home/ajay/httpd/ --enable-ssl

   
make

   
make install


   
The path for configuration file is 
            /ajay/httpd/conf/httpd.conf  
                           Change the listening port(default is 80) to whatever port you like (But port number 
shd be greater than 1024) 
 
Now start the apache using the command    
 /httpd/bin/apachectl -k start 
    So now your apache server is ready to serve web pages .........  




 Now how to configure apache to use ssl 
        
Use following command to generate key and certificate files
        
openssl genrsa -out domainname.key 1024
        
openssl req -new -key domainname.key -out domainname.crt

                        U can use anything in place of domainname but good practice is to use
                        your domainname for which this certificate is going to use.
                        ex: starcom.key, starcom.crt  


       
Now copy this files i.e domainname.key and domainname.crt in same secure place.
       For security reasons,it is strongly recommended that the file containing
       the private key be owned by "root" or  "user" (who is installing apache in 
       his home folder)  and not generally readable(i.e. mode 400),
       and that the certificate be owned by "root" or "user" (who is installing apache 
       in his home folder) and with no write permmisions.
       The certificate is public document(i.e it is given to any browser who connects
       to https://your-site) but the private key must remain a secret. 


       
Now for using this certificate to secure our document, we have to make changes in
       httpd.conf or vhosts.conf(in case of MercE)
       Ex:

          Listen 80
          Listen 4200

          <virtualHost starcomsoftware.com:4200>
          DocumentRoot .....
          ServerName .....
          SSLEngine On
          SSLCertificateFile  <path of the certificate file>
          SSLCertificateKeyFile  <path of the key file>
          .....


          Above example is just for testing.