Rainycity.com Security Certificate Update
Our Secure site uses Thawte Consulting a nationally recognized web security certificate issuer. Each browser used to surf the internet comes programmed with a list of valid Security Certificates at the time the browser is released. It is possible that the browser you are using has an expiration date for the Thawte Root Certificate which is no longer valid. The following steps will help you update your browser with the appropriate Certificate expiration dates for Thawte Consulting which is used on this site.
There are two possible steps to take to update your browser. If the first doesn't work, try the second.
1) Click here to
check your browser's compatibility.
Even if you are compatible, you may need to proceed to Step
2.
2) Root expiry is a normal part of CA operations - all CA certificates expire. On July 27 1998 the default Navigator 3 Thawte Root Certificate expires. The expiration does not affect other browsers as we have longer-term roots in place for Navigator 4.x and IE 4.x. Users of Navigator 3 need to go through a 2 minute update process to avoid a warning message when connecting to Thawte certified sites. Since Thawte has certified more than 24% of the Web servers on the Internet [Netcraft], we believe that those 10 to 15% of users still running Nav 3 will rapidly roll their roots over.
With Netscape Navigator 3.x you must first delete the old root and then install the new one. To do so, follow these quick steps:
- Choose Options, Security Preferences.
- Select the "Site Certificates" tab.
- Find the entry marked "Thawte Server CA". Delete that certificate.
- Close that dialog box.
- Now point your browser at http://www.thawte.com/serverbasic.crt and accept the new root certificate. You will be asked for a nickname, use "Thawte Server CA". This certificate is identical to the last one, except that it is valid till 2020 and is the same as the certificate in Communicator 4.x.
Even though the versions of IE 3.x that ship with the Thawte root (should be IE 3.01 and IE 3.02) use the old root, they are not affected by the expiration in July, because that browser does not check root expiration dates, only cert expiration dates. If you see an error message when you try to connect to a Thawte secure site with IE 3.x, it can probably be fixed by following the steps below. This only works on IE 3.x on Windows95 or NT 4.0.
- Point your browser at http://www.thawte.com/serverbasic.crt
- Choose "Open File" if you are asked, then "Accept and Enable", "OK".
- Now restart IE. You should now have a "Thawte Server CA" entry that is valid till 2020.
The version of IE 4.x for the Macintosh (no other platform) ships with both the old and the new roots. To get it to work, you need to delete the old root. In your security preferences, find the Thawte Server CA root that expired in 1998 (there should be two of them). Delete them. If you are asked for a password, leave it blank. Do NOT delete the newer roots which expire in 2020. You will now be able to connect cleanly.