[lug] Re: Certificate Authority

[Jeff Schroeder]

Scott asked:

> Has anyone used or heard of CAcert and can tell me why I should or
> shouldn't use this service over GoDaddy or a larger entity such as
> Veri$ign?

In general, this sort of thing comes down to whether you want people 
visiting your secure site to get a certificate warning (because the CA 
isn't in their built-in browser list) or just pass through without a 
warning.  You can always grab a free cert, or even generate one 
yourself, but the odds are that people's browsers will complain and 
they'll get nervous.

Thus, using someone like GoDaddy or, heaven forbid, Verisign is nice 
because browsers come with the CA information already installed and no 
warning is issued to the end user.  It depends on your target audience.

HTH,
Jeff