Educause Security Discussion mailing list archives
Re: Free SSL certs for .edu by company included in browser lists
From: Jeff Giacobbe <giacobbej () MAIL MONTCLAIR EDU>
Date: Fri, 17 Nov 2006 11:16:51 -0500
All- Montclair State began moving many of our internal and external-facing web sites to ipsCA SSL certs about a year ago (thanks to a tip on this list, if I recall.) The only 2 issues we have had using these certs are: 1) When someone is using older (>2 years) versions of Mozilla and Safari that don't have the ipsCA root cert pre-installed. This is quickly becoming a moot point as the percentage of outdated browsers continually declines. 2) Apparently some popular versions of Java (up to and including 1.4.x I believe) aren't bundled with the ipsCA root cert and will fail when attempting to use SSL connections. We ran into this issue with a 3rd party Java app and had to purchase a Thawte cert for that particular case. In general, we've been extremely happy with the free ipsCA certificates and I'd recommend them for all but the most "public" of your secure web services. For example if you have a payment gateway for online registration you may still want to opt for a cert from a more "well know" company like Thawte or (<gack>) Verisign just to be sure you have 100% compatibility with all older web browsers. We have not tried the wildcard certificate yet (it almost sounds too good to be true.) Has anyone had experience with wildcard certs - from any vendor? Are there any pitfalls to using one as opposed to a traditional hostname-based cert? Regards, Jeff Giacobbe Director of Systems, Security, and Networking Montclair State University Br. Kenneth Arnold wrote:
We have three processes using certificates from ipsCA and will be adding a fourth process soon. My experience has been: 1. The price is very reasonable. Free for two years to edu domains and very inexpensive after that.
Current thread:
- Free SSL certs for .edu by company included in browser lists Gary Flynn (Nov 17)
- <Possible follow-ups>
- Re: Free SSL certs for .edu by company included in browser lists Charlie Prothero (Nov 17)
- Re: Free SSL certs for .edu by company included in browser lists Vuong Phung (Nov 17)
- Re: Free SSL certs for .edu by company included in browser lists Br. Kenneth Arnold (Nov 17)
- Re: Free SSL certs for .edu by company included in browser lists Consolvo, Corbett (Nov 17)
- Re: Free SSL certs for .edu by company included in browser lists Jeff Giacobbe (Nov 17)
- Re: Free SSL certs for .edu by company included in browser lists Steve Lovaas (Nov 17)
- Re: Free SSL certs for .edu by company included in browser lists Dick Jacobson (Nov 17)
- Re: Free SSL certs for .edu by company included in browser lists Steve Lovaas (Nov 17)
- Re: Free SSL certs for .edu by company included in browser lists Julian Thompson (Nov 17)