 
 
|
Obtaining
Digital Certificates
There are several companies, known as Certificate Authorities (CA), that
issue Digital Certificates. The two largest and most widely supported issuing
authorities are Thawte
and VeriSign.
You can compare
the prices of these certificates.
While the VeriSign certificate is supported by a larger number of very old
browsers (versions 2.x and earlier), only the Thawte
certificate supports "wildcard" domains, which means that "www.yourdomain.com"
and "orders.yourdomain.com" can share the same certificate. VeriSign
does not support wildcard domains and requires each unique domain have its
own certificate.
Thawte Digital Certificates
We have provided a simplified process for ordering
and installing a Thawte certificate.
VeriSign Digital Certificates
If you are interested in Obtaining a VeriSign Digital Certificate, do the
following:
-
 First,
a "Certificate Signing Request" or CSR must be submitted to VeriSign
on behalf of your company (or organization).
- Fill out the Certificate
Request Form and email it to us.
- Blue Reef will then formulate a "Certificate Signing Request"
from the information you provide and return this Request to you.
Included in the Request is a block of information delimited by the
phrase "NEW CERTIFICATE REQUEST". An example of such a block
is included here for your reference:
-----BEGIN NEW CERTIFICATE REQUEST-----
MIIBJTCB0AIBADBtMQswCQYDVQQGEwJVUzEQMA4GA1UEChs4lBMHQXJpem9uYTEN
A1UEBxMETWVzYTEfMB0GA1UEChMWTWVs3XbnzYSBDb21tdW5pdHkgQ29sbGVnZTE
A1UEAxMTd3d3Lm1jLm1hcmljb3BhLmVkdTBaMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBAQUAA0kAMEYC
QQDRNU6xslWjG41163gArsj/P108sFmjkjzMuUUFYbmtZX4RFxf/U7cZZdMagz4I
MmY0F9cdpDLTAutULTsZKDcLAgEDoAAwDQYJKoZIhvcNAQEEBQADQQAjIFpTLgfm
BVhc9SQaip5SFNXtzAmhYzvJkt5JJ4X2r7VJYG3J0vauJ5VkjXz9aevJ8dzx37ir
3P4XpZ+NFxK1R=
-----END NEW CERTIFICATE REQUEST-----
- Once you have obtained your CSR, begin the process of ordering your
signed Digital Certificate.
http://www.verisign.com/products/site/index.html
You will be guided through the steps to order a Digital Certificate.
You will be asked for a number of things during this process.
- When prompted to select your Web Server Software, you should select
Apache-SSL).
- In the section where you are asked to enter your CSR, be sure
to copy the CSR exactly as you recieved it, including the entire
BEGIN NEW CERTIFICATE REQUEST and END NEW CERTIFICATE REQUEST lines.
-----BEGIN NEW CERTIFICATE
REQUEST-----
and
-----END NEW CERTIFICATE
REQUEST-----
- At some point, you will be required to enter information about
your company, including the official company name and address. You
will also be required to mail a copy of a number of documents to
prove you really are who you claim to be.
- At a specific point in the enrollment process, VeriSign will require
a "challenge phrase" or "password". The "challenge phrase" or
"password" will be required on future actions you may wish to take
in relation to your Digital Certificate. Do not use your mother's
maiden name, or any other phrase that could be easily guessed. VeriSign
does not have access to your Challenge Phrase or Password, so you
must remember it.
- Once your Digital Certificate Order is complete, be sure to send
the requested authenticating documentation to the signing agency. Once
the Certificate Authority recieves the authentication documents, you
will usually get your signed certificate within 3 to 5 days.
Please note that Blue Reef cannot act in behalf of you in this matter.
Furthermore, Blue Reef cannot do anything to expedite the certificate
generation process. This is strictly dependent upon VeriSign.
- Once the Certificate Authority has returned a Signed Digital Certificate
to you, it must be installed on your server. To do this, follow the
instructions on our page Installing a Digital
Certificate or, if you are not comfortable with doing it yourself,
you may choose to request to Contact
our Digital Certificate Staff and have us install the certificate
for you. Be sure to include the signed certificate in the message you
send to us. We can then install the certificate on your Virtual Private
Server in 1-3 business days.
|
|
Complete Idiot's Guide to E-Commerce
Small Business Solutions for E-Commerce