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Using FrogNet's Free Secure Certificate
Security Certificates allow someone to access your site using the SSL protocol. In layman's terms, this turns on the little "lock" looking icon usually found in the bottom right hand corner of your web browser. Many on-line shoppers look for this lock before purchasing items. It means that the information on this page has been scrambled in such a way that hackers cannot "sniff" the information off the Internet when you submit a form.
FrogNet users can make their personal web pages, or their domain webpages secure.
Many people ask "where is my secure folder." SSL is a web protocol, not a folder. A common web protocol you see every time you surf the net is http:// others you made of heard of are ftp:// and gopher://
The secure protocol is https://
Personal Web Pages
To make your personal web page secure, simply place a link in the HTML of your site that links to your web page using the secure protocol. Example web page:
<html> <head> <title>Example</title> </head> <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"> <p>Hello World!</p> </body> </html>
To make the above, simple web page secure, place the following link into your page...
<a href="https://home.frognet.net/~mylogin">My Secure Site</a>
Substitute your actual FrogNet login for "mylogin." Your new home page code should look like this...
<html> <head> <title>Example</title> </head> <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"> <p>Hello World!</p> <a href="https://home.frognet.net/~mylogin">My Secure Site</a> </body> </html>
.. and your web page should now look like this ...
Click on the link we just made that says "My Secure Site" and you should see this.
Notice the lock! Your lock may look different depending on your version and type of web browser.
Domains
FrogNet's certificate does not cover domains, so if you need to secure your domain web traffic you'll have to purchase a certificate for your domain. Some Certificate Authorities (CA) with a good reputation include Thawte and Verisign. Instructions for generating a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) vary depending on the CA, hosting platform, etc. but the basics are covered here.
Tips:
- Do not use "Shift Characters":
VeriSign may not accept the info. The most common cause of this error are shift characters such as: (@,#,&,!, etc..For example, if you have an "&" in your organization name, you will need to spell out the word "and" or leave out the "&". - Understanding the Common Name:
The Common Name is typically composed of Host + Domain Name and will look like "www.company.com" or "company.com". VeriSign Server IDs are specific to the Common Name that they have been issued to at the Host level. The Common Name must be the same as the Web address you will be accessing when connecting to a secure site. For example, a Server ID for the domain "domain.com" will receive a warning if accessing a site named "www.domain.com" or "secure.domain.com", as "www.domain.com" and "secure.domain.com" are different from "domain.com". You would need to create a CSR for the correct Common Name. When the Server ID will be used on an Intranet (or internal network), the Common Name may be one word, and it can also be the name of the server.