Free, trusted SSL certificates

SSL-padlockSSL certificates, in case you don’t already know, are the mechanism by which one can secure the connection between a user and a web site – they are the “keys” to establishing a secure connection between the endpoints so that transmitted data can’t be intercepted.

As someone who’s frequently spinning up Linux VMs to use as servers to provide services to my users, I have to be concerned about such security in instances where the services will be accessed by the outside world. Typically, I’ll simply generate a self-signed certificate from the server itself which, while providing security, also means that the user has to cope with the browser-generated security warning every time they visit the site.

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Installing an SSL certificate in Windows Server 2008 (IIS 7.0)

I recently used this process to apply a renewed certificate to our MS Exchange Server. Don’t bother w/ the “renew” process within Exchange Mgmt. Console, as all certificate management is actually done in IIS (EMC just reflects what it finds in IIS). Delete the existing, expired certificate and then use these steps to install the updated … Read more