Digital Certificates
The Shared Certificate is installed on all accounts and is Active by default, until you install a Private Certificate.
There are three Status States a Certificate can be in:
- Active: A complete Certificate is installed and active.
- Inactive: A complete Certificate is installed and inactive.
- Awaiting Signed Cert: An incomplete and inactive Certificate waiting for the signature from a Certificate Authority to be complete and active.
Important: We support SSL certificates that are supported in Internet
Explorer 6, FireFox 1.5, and Safari 2.0 and later production versions.
To manage your digital certificate:
In the digital certificate window, you can perform the following functions:
Understanding Digital Certificates
A Digital Certificate is issued by a Certificate Authority (CA). A CA is third-party organization that represents both
parties, certifying that a business, sellers, individual and Website are connected.
A CA has an essential role in data security and electronic commerce as a guarantor that the two parties dealing in
electronic commerce or exchanging information are really who they claim to be. A digital certificate is used to create
digital signatures that are a guarantee to both parties as a legal paper signature.
The first part in acquiring a new digital certificate is that you must generate a Certificate Signing Request (CSR). A
part of the generation process is creating a private key on the server. When the private key is created, it is not
accessible. To access your private key you must contact support.
Generating the CSR only generates a private key, if one does not exist. It is possible to generate as many CSRs as you
want without any causing harm to the Digital Certificate. Which means a CSR is simply a request. It is nothing more and
has no bearing upon any installed certificate once it has been installed.
If any critical information changes during the life cycle of an installed Digital Certificate, a new CSR will need to be generated and
resubmitted to a CA to obtain a new Certificate reflecting the new information.
After the CSR has been generated, contact a Certificate Authority to purchase a Signed Certificate. After you complete the requested
information on the CA application, the CA gathers the required information (for example, Articles of Incorporation and a Letter of
Authorization from your company). They next verify the data. After the data is verified, they will send the Signed Certificate to you.
Installing a New Digital Certificate
When you receive the Signed Certificate, you will need to install it. The installation is performed through your account control panel
interface. After installing the Signed Certificate, an active Private Certificate appears in the Digital Certificate list in the Digital
Certificate window. The Shared (default) Certificate status is now inactive.
Only one certificate can be active at any one time. If you activate a certificate it will de-activate the other. Since you can not edit
or delete the Public (Shared) Certificate that is installed by default on all accounts this means a certificate will be available at all
times.
You can delete a Signed Certificate by clicking its related delete link. But, if you delete a Signed Certificate, you are completely
deleting the certificate's data. The Signed Certificate is gone forever and cannot be accessed or retrieved (unless you have kept backup
copies of your CSR and Signed Certificate (.crt) files to a secure location in a directory on your local drive.)
Renewing a New Digital Certificate
When you update or renew a certificate, most CA's will add the amount of time remaining on the current license to the time period of
the new purchase, if the time remaining is around than 90 days. You must first verify that the CA you are purchasing the new
certificate from will honor the extension so that you know how long your certificate will be valid.
Important:
The Signed Certificate contains two parts:
- The first part of the Signed Certificate is stored with the CA, which is accessed by the browser when it enters a site where
the encryption is enabled. Typing https:// (where s is secure) and
the browser checks to ensure that all the information in the public key on the site is correct.
- The second part of the Signed Certificate is stored on the Web server. It stores the information that was given to the CA as
part of the verification process, when the Signed Certificate was purchased.
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Managing Your Digital Certificates
You can use this feature to activate your certificate. When you activate your Private Certificate, the system automatically
deactivates the Shared Certificate.
To Activate Your Digital Certificates:
Important:
You should keep backup copies of your CSR and Signed Certificate (.crt) files to restore your certificate, if necessary.
- Click Digital Certificate, or select Utilities and Files-Digital Certificate. The Digital Certificate window
appears.
- Click Certificate Details. The View Details window appears.
- Click Activate.
Note: If the digital certificate has already been activated, the Status displays Activate and the button displays
Deactivate. After the certificate is in place, test it to make sure that it works properly.
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Deactivating Your Digital Certificate
You can use this feature to de-activate your Private Certificate. When you de-activate your Private Certificate, the system
automatically activates the Shared Certificate.
To de-activate your digital certificate:
Important:
You should keep copies locally of your CSR and Signed Certificate (.crt) files to restore your account, if necessary.
- Click Digital Certificate, or select Utilities and Files-Digital Certificate. The Digital Certificate window
appears.
- Select Certificate Details. The View Details window appears.
- Click Deactivate.
Note: If the digital certificate has already been de-activated, the Status displays Inactive and the button
displays Activate.
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E-mailing a Copy of Your Signed Certificate
You can use this feature to email a copy of your CSR, and save it to a secure location in a directory on your local drive.
To email a Copy of your Signed Certificate:
Important:
You should backup keep copies of your CSR and Signed Certificate (.crt) files to restore your account, if necessary.
- Click Digital Certificate, or select Utilities and Files-Digital Certificate. The Digital Certificate window
appears.
- Select Certificate Details. The View Details window appears displaying your Digital Certificates.
- Enter your email address in the Email Copy To: field, then click Email copy of CSR. A
verification message appears. The contents of the Signed Certificate file are sent to your email address. After the contents of
the Signed Certificate file are received in your mail's inbox, you can copy and paste the contents of the Signed Certificate file
to a text editor, then save the file to the secure location in a directory on your local drive with a file
extension of .crt. This will allow you to retrieve the Signed Certificate whenever it is needed.
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Installing a New Digital Certificate
You can use this feature to install a new Digital Certificate.
Important:
Two keys are required to complete a Digital Certificate:
- A Private Key: This key is created in the CSR Generation process.
- A Public Key: This is purchased from a Certificate Authority (CA).
- A Shared Certificate: This key is the default key installed at provisioning. Its Status is Active, until
you install a new Digital Certificate.
Note: Clicking Cancel the CSR Process at any step in the Installing a New Digital Certificate
process ends the installation.
Caution:
The following Message is displayed when completing an Digital Certificate installation:
"WARNING: The installation process deletes all previously installed Private (purchased) Certificates completely."
To install a new digital certificate:
Important:
You should keep backup copies of your CSR and Signed Certificate (.crt) files to restore your digital certificate, if necessary.
- Click Generate a CSR. The Generate a CSR window appears.
- Enter the information in appropriate fields of the Certificate Signing Request section:
Important:
Enter the information in the Certificate Signing Request section, as it appears in your Articles of Incorporation. The
information MUST be accurate for approval by the Certificate Authority (CA).
Note: * indicates a Required Field and must be completed
- Country: * Select your country from the Country drop-down list.
- State or Province: * Type your state or province name in this required
field.
- City: * Type your city name in this required field.
- Company Name: * Type your company name in this required field.
- Department Name: Type your department name in this field.
- Domain Name: * Type your domain name in this required field, for
example: (www.your_domain)
- Email Address: Type your email address in this field.
- Click Proceed to Step2. The Generate a CSR window refreshes, displaying the CSR and a message informing you
that a new CSR has been created.
Important:
You can save a copy of your CSR file to a secure location in a directory on your local drive using one of the following methods:
- Copy and paste the CSR file from the Generated Request (CSR) field to a text editor, then save the CSR
file to the secure location in a directory on your local drive.
- Enter your email address in the Email copy to: field, then click Email copy of CSR.
After the CSR file is received in your mail's inbox, save the CSR file to the secure location in a directory on your local
drive.
- Save copies of your Certificate Signing Request (CSR) and Signed Certificate (.crt) files to the same secure directory
location. This will allow you to retrieve the files whenever they are needed.
Note: If your Certificate Signing Request information changes, generate a new CSR. You can request multiple
copies of the CSR, but can only store one.
- Select a Certificate Authority and purchase a Signed Certificate.
- Complete the Signed Certificate process on the Certificate Authority Website. The process to do this varies slightly from
site to site; consult the online documentation for the Certificate Authority if you have questions.
Note: The certificate verification and return cycle can take more than 24 hours.
- After you have complete the Signed Certificate process, click Complete the CSR Process. The Digital
Certificate window appears.
- After the Certificate Signing Request (CSR) file is received, save a copy to a secure location on your local drive with a
file extension of .crt. This enables you to retrieve the Signed Certificate whenever it is needed and to complete the Digital
Certificate installation.
- When you receive the signed certificate, repeat Steps 1, 2, and 3 of
this procedure. The Digital Certificate window appears.
- From the Actions column, click Install the Signed Certificate for the Private (incomplete) Certificate
Type. The Install a Signed Certificate window appears.
- Upload your Signed Certificate into the Control Panel using one of the following methods:
- Click Browse... to retrieve the Signed Certificate file from the secure directory.
- Copy the Signed Certificate from a text editor and paste it in the Paste Signed Certificate field.
Important:
When copying and pasting your Signed Certificate file, be sure to include the "BEGIN" and "END" lines.
- Click Install Signed certificate. The Digital Certificate is installed.
Note: If you have a Private Certificate already installed, and you click the
Install Signed Certificate link in the Actions column, the following message appears:
Installing a certificate over an installed certificate will completely delete the previously installed certificate. Are
you sure you want to continue?
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Installing an Existing Digital Certificate
You can use this feature to install an Existing Digital Certificate.
To install an existing certificate:
Important:
You should keep backup copies of your CSR and Signed Certificate (.crt) files to restore your account, if necessary.
Note: * are Required Fields and must be completed
- Click Digital Certificate, or select Utilities and Files-Digital Certificate. The Digital Certificate
window appears.
- Click Install Existing Cert. The Install a Pre-existing Digital Certificate window appears.
Note: If you have a Private Certificate already installed, the following message appears:
*WARNING: The installation process deletes all previously installed Private (purchased) Certificates completely.
Clicking Cancel ends the Existing Digital Certificate installation.
- Upload your Private Key into the Control Panel using one of the following methods:
- Click Browse... to retrieve the copy of the Private Key file from the secure directory on your local drive.
- Copy and paste the Private Key into the Step One Paste Private Key: * field.
Important:
When you copy and paste your Private Key file, be sure to include the "BEGIN" and "END" lines.
- Click Proceed to Step 2. The Install a Pre-existing Digital Certificate window refreshes, displaying Step 2.
- Upload your Signed Certificate into the Control Panel using one of the following methods:
- Click Browse... to retrieve the Signed Certificate file from the secure directory.
- Copy and paste the Signed Certificate into the Step Two Paste Signed Certificate: * field.
Important:
When you copy and paste your existing Signed Certificate, be sure to include the "BEGIN" and "END" lines.
- Click Provide Signed Certificate Information . The Digital Certificate window appears. Your Existing Digital
Certificate is installed. The Status column displays the Private Digital Certificate as active and the Shared Digital Certificate
as inactive.
Note: Clicking Cancel ends the existing Digital Certificate installation.
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Renewing Your Digital Certificate
To renew your digital certificate:
To renew your Digital Certificate, contact the Certificate Authority (CA) (listed in the CA section of the Display Generated CSR
window) for their requirements, or contact another source for a CA for their requirements to renew your Digital Certificate.
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Viewing Your Certificate Signing Request
You can use this feature to view your Certificate Signing Request.
To a view your certificate signing request:
Important:
You should keep backup copies of your CSR and Signed Certificate (.crt) files to restore your account, if necessary.
- Click Digital Certificate, or select Utilities and Files-Digital Certificate. The Digital Certificate window
appears.
- Click View the current CSR. The View the current CSR window appears displaying your CSR.
Note: If you do not have a CSR installed, the View the current CSR link does not appear on the
Digital Certificate window.
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