[thelist] SSL Certificates

[Ken Schaefer]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From: "jsWalter" <jsWalter at torres.ws>
Subject: RE: [thelist] SSL Certificates


: > Hi Evolters!
: >
: > Looking to buy an SSL certificate for a client and wondering about
: > recommendations...
:
: can I ask a stupid question here?
:
: What value does purchasing a SSL cert give you?
:
: Why do I need to buy one, when I can make one myself? My site has it's own
: that I rolled myself.
:
: No one has ever asked me about my cert, ever questioned it.
:
: I'm just wondering.
:
: Maybe I should go into the cert business!  ;)
:
: Seriously, does buying a cert really give you anything?
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If you're a company like Amazon.com how much do you think it'll cost them
in:

a) support - people writing in saying that the browser is telling them that
there's some kind of error (since the certificate heirarchy isn't entirely
trusted by their browser)

    -and-

b) lost sales, since some people will just give up.

That's what a cert from a "trusted authority" gives you. Whether you need
that for your particular site depends on what type of customers you have.

Cheers
Ken

Microsoft MVP - Windows Server (IIS)