[731] in IS Home Pages
My answer to rixner -- X509 (MIT) certificates and Netscape vs
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Rob Smyser)
Fri Aug 27 09:31:13 1999
Message-Id: <3.0.5.32.19990827093039.008b4100@po8.mit.edu>
Date: Fri, 27 Aug 1999 09:30:39 -0400
To: is-home@mit.edu
From: Rob Smyser <smyser@MIT.EDU>
Mime-Version: 1.0
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Folks,
this IE vs Netscape certificate thing is touching users' nerves isn't
it? This is the note I sent to Scott Rixner at Stanford - he was appeased
if not placated by the response. We might want to ask Jeff what the deal
really is with IE so we have technical detail behind our statements. I'll
take care of that if you like.
Rob
>Date: Thu, 26 Aug 1999 16:46:42 -0400
>To: rixner@csl.stanford.edu
>From: Rob Smyser <smyser@mit.edu>
>Subject: X509 (MIT) certificates and Netscape vs IE
>
>Scott,
> Your note about MIT certificates and netscape was passed along to me.
The short answer is that the two implementations of X.509 in Netscape and
IE work differently. Back when certificates were first introduced (in the
version 3 browser epoch) the two platforms were even more dissimilar than
they are now. Microsoft has come closer to the standard, but still not yet
all the way.
>
> MIT went with Netscape's method because we needed unix browsers to work
with them, which ruled out IE at the time. The developers have decided to
implement just one brand of certificate, and netscape was multiplatform
first (and I believe it was truer to the standard, a philosophical point
the MIT developers cared about). An artifact of history.
>
> I know this isn't the answer you were after and I'm sorry for that.
You may simply have to endure having Netscape around for those things that
require certificates while you're affiliated with MIT. I have had to make
the same adjustment. The two browsers coexist reasonably well, and both
can be set to not ask you if you want to switch default browsers. At least
they're both free now.
>
>Sincerely,
>
>Rob Smyser
>the Business Help Group
>
>>Date: Sat, 21 Aug 1999 12:08:48 -0400
>>From: rixner@csl.stanford.edu
>>To: is-home@MIT.EDU (IS Webmasters)
>>Subject: Suggestion for improving the IS web pages
>>
>>Suggestions (provide URL): https://ca.mit.edu/cert.jhtml
>>
>>Microsoft Internet Explorer needs to be supported for obtaining digital
>>certificates. I do not have Netscape installed on most of the computers
>>that I use. Nor do I want to install it just to get certificates from
>>MIT. The WebSIS information, which I find extremely useful, is pretty
>>much unavailable to me because you choose not to support the most common
>>web browser to obtain a personal digital certificate. Furthermore, there
>>is a taunting message saying that it is "not yet supported" for Internet
>>Explorer. I've been seeing that message for over a year. If you're going
>>to support it, please do so ASAP. If not, remove that message, but I
>>think that's a serious oversight and is extremely annoying, at least to me.
>>
>
