How to create a GoDaddy CSR on Windows 2008 R2

This guide explains how to create a CSR on Windows 2008 R2 using the Certificates MMC snapin.

First you need to open MMC and add the certificates snapin. Make you you specify that you wan t to mange “local computer”

Before we begin make sure you can see both the personal certificates (the red circle) and the intermediate certification autoritites (red arraw) as seen below.

To create the CSR we first right-click on Personal \ Certificates and choose create custom reuqest. 

 

Click next on the welcome screen and move on to you are asked to choose template. Change to the Legacy key as shown below and click Next.

The next screen can be a bit tricky. Press the details button and and the properties that appears.

For a GoDaddy certificate there are a few properties that we have to change. First we have to tell what name we want on the certificate. Find Subject on the top, change type to common name and type in the name of the certificate – and add it.

Then move on to the private key. Open key options and set the key size to 2048. You may also want to make the private key exportable.

Move then on to Extensions and key usage. Add both digital signature and key encipherment.

Browse then down to extended key usage and select both server and client authentication.

When done, press OK. You are now back to the a previous dialog. Notice that your settings are now in place. Press Next.

You can now save your request to a file. Choose base 64 as file format and save the request to a file.

You can now go to GoDaddy and order your certificate. Open the file you just created in Wordpad and copy its content to the web request.

Good luck!

Cheap SSL certificates?

Are you in need for good and cheap SSL certificates?

What is a SSL certificate? A SSL certificate is a proof that the remote party are who they claim to be. All certificates needs to be issued by a common known, trusted authority for this to work.

Where can you use a certificate? SSL certificates are used more often than you think. As a computer geek (you found this article, right…) you probably often use SSL certificates when suring web sites like your bank, Google login etc. Many mail providers let you encrypt e-mails during transmission on the wire. And you can even encrypt or digitally sign your e-mails using protocols like S/MIME.

Look at the image below, this is a screen shot from me visiting PayPal. The web site is protected with a SSL certificate.

I have earlier talked about choosing the right SSL issuer and SSL compatibility issues (advanced topic!).

Do I need one? For many home users, enterprises and small companies; yes – you do. You should encrypt your passwords and data that are sent through the Internet.

Where do I get one??? After looking around, I have not found any cheaper than GoDaddy on SSL certificates. It took me about 30 minutes to complete the purchase and install it on my e-mail server.

Windows Live Writer

Some time ago I wrote about the Windows Live Writer, a tool from Microsoft to write blog posts. I have now used the Live Writer for about two consecutive months now and I am very pleased with this free software from Microsoft. (If you don’t know it – Live Writer is part of Windows Live – with the MSN messenger among other tools.)

I think it has – for me – made me write more posts than I did before as it has made it easier for me to write something. About anything. The only thing I miss is norwegian spell control.

FortiMail review

I had the pleasure to try out the FortiMail appliance from Fortinet.

The FortiMail appliance is an Internet edge defence, for both inbound e-mails and outbound. It can be configured as an e-mail server with webmail and POP3 support, or as a proxy. But I only worked with the appliance as a proxy for my e-mail server. The FortiMail is not licensed for users, so you pay for the box and can have as much emails through it as you want. There are only two limitations; the hardware and the number of e-mail domains supported. The smallest box can only support 50 domains and about 77000 messages per hour.

This appliance is easy to configure and has lots of spam prevention possibilities. With a subscribtion from Fortinet it will scan attachmens for viruses and block all spam mails known to Fortinet.

The FortiMail is the most effective spam fighting appliance I have ever tried out. During my test period I had no spam passing through, and even then I had more knots to turn on…

Zoner Photo Studio 12 Professional review

For many years now I have been using BreezeBrowser Pro to handle my photos. At some point I also used DxO to make some of them even look better. Over time DxO turned out to be a slow program, and licensing limitations made me drop it when I replaced my laptop.

Then I came across Zoner Photo Studio, an application that handles images well. Highlights are:

• full RAW processing
• a wide array of edits and effects for photo enthusiasts
• HDR, panoramas, and even a 3D photo maker
• convenient, time saving batch operations
• quick picture organizing
• support for GPS map data
• a fresh, user-defined interface
• easy and direct web publishing
• templates for calendars, contact lists, and more
• DVD and PDF slideshows

Not all of them apply to me, but some do.

I have an old, slow computer and processing speed is important to me. (Have you ever tried Corel PaintShot Photo X3 you will know what I mean…) ZPS works fine, but if your images are stored on a network file share, you better have fast connectivity. At least if you have many images.

The RAW processing module has lots of options, have a look at some images that I postprocessed with the RAW module of ZPS.

Moving back and forth between the browser, viewer and the editor is straight forward.

There are many editing options present, I do not intend to learn all of them. But some make the images look better and is simple to use, such as the “Quick Fix” that does some magic with the colors of the image, sharpening, vignetting and so on.

The image below is a RAW image from my camera with minimal postprocessing with ZPS.

In all – ZPS is a good software platform to work on. I expect to learn more about it in the future.

Technorati Tags: Zoner Photo Studio,Zoner,ZPS

Kerio Connect SMTP Server

A few days ago I posted a post about the Kerio Connect email system. This post is about the SMTP server and the POP3/IMAP server that ships with the product.

The SMTP server is straight forward. My options are few, how to fight spam and some relay options. The spam fighting options are:

• DNSBL (you can choose what lists to use).
• Sender Policy Framework – has been around for some years now.
• Caller ID – made by Microsoft, not many seems to support it yet. Caller ID seems to be SPF with some modifications. (Embrace, extend, and exterminate…)
• SpamAssassin – can be learned from the web interface and the Outlook connector.

All emails are also subject to antivirus check, either powered by McAfee® or an external antivirus software of your choice.

IMAP and POP3

I have not tried out the POP3 server as I wanted to move away from POP3 with Kerio Connect. The IMAP server, on the other hand, has been used extensively on my mobile phone using ProfiMail as the mail client. The IMAP server has been fast, efficient and up to date. I have not experienced any problems with it.