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About Secure (SSL) Access to Oakton's
Web based Resources
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| In order to protect the privacy of information you send to
or receive from Oakton's web sites, we rely on a standard technology called
SSL (secure sockets layer) to encrypt the information. |
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Any URL that begins with "https" is using this encryption technology.
Any web site that supports SSL must provide an authenticating certificate
to your browser that is issued by some "Certificate Authority".
Your browser is setup by default to accept certificates from only a small
number of authorities. To avoid spending thousands of
dollars in annual fees to one of these certificate authorities, Oakton
acts as its own certificate authority. The result of
this is that you may receive a scary looking warning like one of the examples
to the right.
To load the page:
- in Internet Explorer, just click the Yes button.
- in Netscape, just press "Next" through all the screens of
the "New Site Certificate" wizard and then click "Finish".
If you don't do anything else, you will receive this warning every time
you access the site.
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| Internet Explorer Warning |
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| Netscape 4.x Warning |
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How to Eliminate the Warning
To eliminate the warnings for any secure site at Oakton, you can install
Oakton's root certificate into your browser. To do this simply click
on the following link: http://borg.oakton.edu/RootCert.der
(note that if you type in the location the URL is case-sensitive)
and follow the prompts from your browser to install the certificate. Details
follow below for Internet Explorer 6 & 7,
Netscape 4.x
and Firefox 1.5 & 2.0.
Note that this is a safe operation and does not install any software
on your computer, it only authorizes your browser to accept secure content
from Oakton. This only has to be done once per computer/browser
and then you will be able to access any of Oakton's secure content.
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- Click on the link below: http://borg.oakton.edu/RootCert.der
- A File Download window will appear. IE will prompt you to open
(or save*) the file.
- Choose "Open"
- A Certificate Window will open providing details on the Certificate.
- Click Install Certificate
- The Certificate Import Wizard window will appear and open to
the 'Certificate Store.'
(Note: a 'Certificate Store' is just the folder where the certificate
files will be stored)
- Choose "Automatically select the..."
- Click Next
- The Certificate Import Wizard window should show that the import
is complete.
- Click Finish
- A Security Warning window should appear and will prompt you
to install the certificate.
- Click Yes.
- The Certificate Import Wizard should prompt you that the import
was successful.
- Click OK. This completes the certificate install process and
you should now be able to log into myOakton.
Alternative IE7 Instructions:
If you choose "Save" instead of "Open,"at step
2 above you may try following these alternate steps:
- When prompted, download (Save) the rootcert.cer
file to your computer
- Click IE 7's Tools menu
- Click Internet Options
- Click Content
- Click Certificates
- Click Import
- browse to and select the rootsert.cer file
downloaded earlier
- Click Open
- Select Place all certificates in following
store
- Click Browse
and select Trusted Root Certificate Authorities
- Click Next
- Click Finish
- Click Yes
- Click OK
- Click OK again to close Internet Options
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Installing the Root Certificate in
Firefox (versions 1.5 & 2.0)
- In Firefox, click on the link below http://borg.oakton.edu/RootCert.der.
- A Downloading Certificate window will appear.
- Check the box for "Trust this CA to identify web sites"
- Check the box for "Trust this CA to identify email users"
- If desired, click the View button to examine the CA certificate
- Click OK
- Certificate installed.
- To check, type the above url again. It should tell you that
the certificate is already installed.
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Installing
the Root Certificate in
Internet Explorer (version 6)
- Click on the link below: http://borg.oakton.edu/RootCert.der
- IE will prompt you to open or save the file.
- Choose "Open"
- A Certificate Window will open providing details on the Certificate.
- Click the "Install Certificate" Button.
- The Certificate Manager Import Wizard will Open.
- Click Next.
- At the Select Certificate Store screen, click "Next" to accept
the default "Automatically Select the certificate store based
on the type of certificate."
- Click the Finish button.
- A window will open to confirm that you wish to add the Oakton
certificate to the Root Store.
- Click "Yes"
- A window will open to tell you that the import was successful.
- Click the "OK" button to close the certificate window.
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Installing
the Root Certificate in
Netscape (version 4.x)
- Click on the link below: http://borg.oakton.edu/RootCert.der
- When the "New Certificate Authority" Wizard opens, click "Next."
- The Wizard will display the name on the certificate (OAKTON).
- Click "Next."
- The Wizard will ask "Are you willing to accept this Certificate
Authority for the purposes of certifying other internet sites,
email users, or software developers?"
- Place a check in the "Accept this Certificate Authority for
Certifying network sites" and "Accept this Certificate Authority
for Certifying e-mail users" checkboxes then
- Click "Next."
- The "Warn me about submitting information to this site"
screen.
- Click "Next"
- Type in a Nickname for the certificate (use "Oakton")
- Click "Finish."
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Learn more about
SSL:
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