I will start this article by explaining what the acronym SSL means. Secure Socket Layer better known as (SSL) can be described as a protocol that facilitates encryption between the user browser and the web server. This mode of encryption is vital in the process of enabling secure and confidential data.
Now back to the subject at hand, Installing SSL certificates on a Windows 2008 Server. If this is your first time, it would be better to have an extra set of help in form of video tutorials. This is since the process can be irreversible if critical steps are not followed to the letter.
Also it wouldn’t hurt having a comforting sound guiding you over the phases. So this article is primarily for the nerds and geeks who have already had prior experience with this subject. Lets now get to the nitty gritty.
First we will start by opening the IISM. This stands for Internet Information Services Manager. Go the Start Button on your computer screen, Search for Administrative Tools, which will open up a sub-list and then go on to click IISM which will ask you to click on the Server Name. End of Step one, quite easy wasn’t it?
The Second step involves clicking on the Server Certificates icon that will appear in a box filled with other icons like Error Pages, MIME Types and Directory Browsing. Now once you do so, check for the Complete Certificate Request Wizard option.
You will be prompted to provide a location for your certificate and optionally you can insert a friendly name to the certificate so as to aid in distinguishing it from the rest.
From here on then we will now deal with how to assign this SSL Certificate to a website. The first step will be reverting back to the root of the server we are installing on. You should easily see the Binding option. Click on it and a pop up with some data boxes should appear.
You will be required to fill in the Port number, for example port 443. Be keen to select the type as https. Here the Ip address will also occupy the role of IP address of the site being added to. On completion of these fields you will have successfully added a SSL certificate to a website. Try it out today.
