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Creating a digital ID at Thawte with Safari: A Step-by-Step Example

Setup an account with Thawte

First you need to setup an account with Thawte before you can request a certificate from them.

Here's how using Safari:

  1. Go to http://www.thawte.com ..............View Screenshot
  2. At the top of the page, under the "products" menu, choose "free personal e-mail certificates": View Screenshot
  3. Click where it says "Click here" and a popup window will appear: View Screenshot
  4. Scroll down and click Next to get to the next screen: View Screenshot
  5. Fill out the info, and click Next: View Screenshot
  6. Continue filling out the info and click Next: View Screenshot
  7. Where it asks you for language prefs, leave the default settings and click Next: View Screenshot
  8. Enter a password that you'll remember. You'll need this password to get back into your account. Click Next when done: View Screenshot
  9. Continue filling out the form and click Next when done: View Screenshot
  10. Confirm your answers, and click Next to finish: View Screenshot
  11. At this point, you've setup an account for yourself with Thawte. With this account you can request certificates and get them issued to you. However, you don't have any actual certificates yet. To get some keep reading. Next, you need to generate your private key, request and retrieve a certificate from Thawte, and import your certificate into your OS keychain. Check your e-mail for a "verify account" message from Thawte. Click on the link there, and copy/paste the Probe and Ping ID numbers they sent in the e-mail and click Next: View Screenshot
  12. Click Next to request a certificate. View Screenshot

You're done...with this part :-)

  1. Next, you need to generate your private key, request and retrieve a certificate from Thawte, and import your certificate into your OS keychain. Log back into the account you just created from Thawte. Your id will be your full email address, and the password is what you entered above when setting up the account. View Screenshot
  2. Click on the "Request" button. View Screenshot
  3. A popup window will appear. You can leave the default selection (Netscape Communicator or Messenger). Click Request to continue. View Screenshot
  4. Leave the default selected (No Employment Information Available) and click Next.View Screenshot
  5. Check the box to choose the e-mail address you want the certificate for and click Next:View Screenshot
  6. Click Next again to continue: View Screenshot
  7. You can choose to edit extensions if you'd like, but you'll be fine if you leave the defaults and just click "Accept": View Screenshot
  8. Again, you can leave the default setting of generating a 2048-bit key. Click Next to continue: View Screenshot
  9. Confirm the information that was entered, then click Finish when you're done: View Screenshot
  10. At this point, a new private key was generated by Safari for you and was stored into your OS Keychain. That key is waiting to be paired to your public-key certificate, once Thawte issues it. Meanwhile, that certificate is in the process of being issued by Thawte. It may take anywhere from a few seconds to several minutes or more before your certificate will be ready for you to download and install. Click on the "here" link in the popup window to go back to your main account page and wait for the cert: View Screenshot
  11. Your account will say "Status: pending" while Thawte is still generating and signing your certificate. This means wait a few minutes and check back again: View Screenshot
  12. When the status finally says "issued", your certificate is ready. Click on the "issued" link: View Screenshot
  13. This page lists more information about the certificate you were issued, such as when it's good for, when you requested it, etc. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Fetch to download and install the certificate into your keychain. View Screenshot
  14. You'll notice Keychain Access launch. This means the certificate was installed into your OS keychain, and is now paired with the private key that was created for you earlier by Safari. You're all set to configure Entourage to use your new certificate.