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What
is SSL?
What is a chained root SSL certificate?
What is ChainedSSL?
What do you consider low volume, low transaction?
What browser versions are compatible with ChainedSSL and FreeSSL?
Why are you providing ChainedSSL web server certificates?
How long are the ChainedSSL certificates valid for?
How
long does it take to issue my Certificate?
Is there a limit to the number of ChainedSSL I can order?
What is browser ubiquity or browser recognition?
Can I secure multiple subdomains with a single Certificate?
BACK
TO SSL TYPES
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General
FAQ
What
is SSL?
The SSL (and TLS) protocol is the Web standard for encrypting communications
between users and SSL (secure sockets layer) e-commerce sites. Data
sent via an SSL connection is protected by encryption, a mechanism
that prevents eavesdropping and tampering with any transmitted data.
SSL provides businesses and consumers with the confidence that private
data sent to a Web site, such as credit card numbers, are kept confidential.
Web server certificates (also known as secure server certificates
or SSL certificates) are required to initialize an SSL session.
Customers know when they have an SSL session with a website when
their browser displays the little gold padlock and the address bar
begins with a https rather than http. SSL certificates can be used
on webservers for Internet security and mailservers such as imap,
pop3 and smtp for mail collection / sending security.
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What
is a chained root SSL Certificate?
When connecting to a webserver over SSL, the visitor's browser decides
whether or not to trust the website's SSL certificate based on which
Certification Authority has issued the actual SSL certificate. To
determine this, the browser looks at its list of trusted issuing
authorities - represented by a collection of Trusted Root CA certificates
added into the browser by the browser vendor (such as Microsoft
and Netscape).
Most SSL certificates are issued by CAs who own and use their own
Trusted Root CA certificates, such as those issued by GeoTrust.
As GeoTrust is known to browser vendors as a trusted issuing authority,
its Trusted Root CA certificate has already been added to all popular
browsers, and hence is already trusted. These SSL certificates are
known as "single root" SSL certificates. FreeSSL.com, a subsidiary
of GeoTrust, also owns the UTN root used to issue FreeSSL certificates.
Some Certification Authorities, like Comodo, do not have a Trusted
Root CA certificate present in browsers, therefore they need a "chained
root" in order for their certificates to be trusted - essentially
a CA with a Trusted Root CA certificate issues a "chained" certificate
which "inherits" the browser recognition of the Trusted Root CA.
These SSL certificates are known as "chained root" SSL certificates.
For a Certification Authority to have its own Trusted Root CA certificate
already present in browsers is a clear sign that they are long-time,
stable and credible organizations who have long term relationships
with the browser vendors (such as Microsoft and Netscape) for the
inclusion of their Trusted Root CA certificates. For this reason,
such CAs are seen as being considerably more credible and stable
than chained root certificate providers who do not have a direct
relationship with the browser vendors.
Chained root certificates require additional effort to install as
the webserver must also have the chained root installed. This is
not necessary for single root certificates.
Like chained root certificates in general, ChainedSSL chained root
certificates are ideal for low value, low volume commercial sites.
At only $65 per certificate, ChainedSSL is the only stable low cost
chained root certificate available in the industry! Other chained
root providers such as Comodo retail their chained root certificates
in excess of $65.
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What
is ChainedSSL?
ChainedSSL is a chained root web server certificate that allows
web sites to conduct secure e-commerce with an encrypted SSL connection
and is ideal for low volume, low transaction value websites. ChainedSSL
lowers the barrier of entry for companies that want chained root
SSL security by providing immediately issued certificates at the
lowest cost available.
Comparable products sell in excess of $65 each, while ChainedSSL
provides the same industry standard chained root SSL security at
fantastic savings!
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What
do you consider low volume, low transaction?
If you have a low volume website and you decide that your customer's
confidence is not affected at all by the brand behind the SSL certificate
or the volume of customers that would have an issue are insignificant
in number then ChainedSSL is the perfect answer.
It is all about customer confidence. Whilst ChainedSSL technology
is production grade, only you can really determine whether your
customers confidence will improve significantly if you purchase
an established brand like GeoTrust.
As a guide, typical customer transaction value is sub $150, and
volumes of transactions are less than 50 per week.
Note: The 50 per week example figure is simply a commercial guide
and not a technical restriction. Technically the ChainedSSL certificate
will not be restricted from conducting more transactions than 50
- they are still industry standard 128 bit SSL certificates. However
it is our opinion that sites conducting more than 50 transactions
will require a Professional Level SSL certificate due to the increased
likelihood that the website's customers will expect SSL from a highly
credible and established SSL provider and well known SSL brand.
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What
browser versions are compatible with ChainedSSL?
ChainedSSL Certificates are compatible with Internet Explorer 5.01+,
Netscape 7+. ChainedSSL certificates use chaining technology and
requires the webserver to be SSL v3 or above compatible, which is
the majority of all popular webservers.
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Why
are you providing ChainedSSL secure server certificates?
By providing ChainedSSL certificates, we are lowering the barrier
of entry for companies and websites wishing to secure their low
volume and low value online transactions and data with the lowest
cost chained root certificates available.
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How
long are the ChainedSSL certificates valid for?
ChainedSSL certificates are valid for 12 months.
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How
long does it take to issue my Certificate?
Most SSL certificates are issued with 2 - 3 hours on weekdays and
12-14 hours on weekends.
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Is
there a limit to the number of ChainedSSL I can order?
We do not limit the amount of ChainedSSL certificates that can be
ordered. Go ahead and get as many as you need!
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What
is browser ubiquity or browser recognition?
Browser ubiquity is the term used in the industry to describe the
estimated percentage of Internet users that will inherently trust
an SSL certificate. The lower the browser ubiquity, the less people
will trust your certificate - clearly, if you are operating a commercial
site you require as many people as possible to trust your SSL certificate.
As a general rule, any SSL certificate with over 95% browser ubiquity
is acceptable for a commercial site.
Ubiquity is however not the only consideration in deciding whether
one SSL certificate is better than another. Many companies running
high transaction volume web sites need to maximize customer confidence
and therefore buy certificates from well known, long time security
vendors and mostly use the major players e.g. GeoTrust and Verisign
who are all WebTrust compliant.
If you have a low volume web site and you decide that your customers
confidence is not effected at all by the brand behind the SSL certificate,
or the volume of customers that would have an issue are insignificant
in number, then ChainedSSL is ideal.
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Can
I secure multiple subdomains with a single Certificate?
An SSL certificate is issued to a fully qualified domain name (FQDN).
This means that an SSL certificate issued to "secure.freessl.com"
cannot be used on different subdomains, such as "www.freessl.com".
To get around this restriction we have available ChainedSSL Wildcard
Certificates. Wildcard Certificates allow you to secure multiple
subdomains on the same domain name, thereby saving you time and
money, and of course you do not need to manage multiple certificates
on the same server.
So with a single certificate issued to *.yourdomain.com you could
protect:
• www.yourdomain.com
• secure.yourdomain.com
• etc.yourdomain.com
For more details on our chained root Wildcard SSL, please click here.
Order an SSL Certificate
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