What is ssl?
SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer. It is basicly encryption between you and the server, ensuring that anyone with a packet sniffer wont be able to sniff your traffic and get information such as your nickserv password. Pier-44 Servers are all connected via SSL, but it is up to users to choose to use ssl. Since anything you send to a channel is sent to anyone, anyone can sniff the traffic of an unencrypted user to get information, but any info you send between the server and services will remain secure.

How do I use SSL?
Many clients support ssl either out of the box or with an addon.

mIRC Users
1) Install mIRC as usual
2) Download These DLL files
3) Extract them to the root of your mirc directory (not in a subfolder), this is usually c:\Program Files\mIRC\
4) restart mIRC
5) Reconnect to Pier-44, but this time tell your client to use port +7001 example: /server irc.p44.org:+7001. The Plus sign tells mIRC this port is listening for incoming SSL Connections, so make sure its there.

IRSSI Users
Connect to port 7001 and specify the ssl flag
/server -SSL irc.p44.org 7001

X-Chat Users
1) Go to the server list
2) Add/edit pier-44
3) Edit the servers to use port 7001 example: irc.p44.org/7001
4) Check: Use SSL for all the servers on this network and Accept invalid SSL certificate.

My client isn't listed!
Either theres no ssl support for it or ive never heard of it. Probably the latter if your client is called "Giant Douche IRC".