ZSD Certification Authority

Back ground

Many commercial software clients require that servers have signed SSL certificates, otherwise they will present warning screens which persistently nag users or even worse refuse to operate at all.

ZSD has created an internal Certification Authority. Thus we can install signed certificates into e-mail servers supported by ZSD. Users who have accounts hosted on these servers can install the Root Certificate of our Certification Authority into their browser or e-mail program. This will permanently eliminate all nag screens and warnings when connected to servers using ZSD signed certificates.

ZSD does not claim to operate as a Certification Authority. We will only use this CA to sign certificates used directly in servers that we support, thus there is no requirement for any verification of identity normally associated with operating a CA. In most cases the public DNS records of servers using these certificates are also controlled by ZSD. Users who might have need to install these Root Certificate are probably already familiar with ZSD and the services we provide and can make their own decisions regarding using these certificates.

Users obviously install these certificates at their own risk!

Download of Root Certificates

Root certificates can be downloaded from these links:

• In pem format (useful for Thunderbird users) zsd-cacert.pem

• In der format (useful for Outlook users) zsd-cacert.der

Download the required certificate file and save it in a temporary location on your hard drive, then install it into your e-mail client as described below.

Installation of Root Certificates

Thunderbird

• Edit Preferences (or Tools Preferences)
• Advanced
• Certificates
• View Certificates
• Import, select the downloaded "zsd-cert.pem" file.
• Tick three check boxes to trust for websites, e-mail and software developers and
• Click OK.

Outlook

• From Internet Explorer (not Outlook), open Tools, Internet Options. (Alternately open this directly from the control panel).
• Content
• Certificates
• Trusted Root Certification Authorities
• Import, next
• Browse to your download directory, set filter to "All Files"
• Select the downloaded "zsd-cert.der" file. (It will show as "Type Certificate" and the extension will be hidden.)
• Click open then next
• Next to store the certificate in the suggested "Trusted Root Certification Authorities"
• Finish