[821] in IS Home Pages
Re: Suggestion for improving the IS web pages
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Tom Cavin)
Thu Nov 4 13:28:34 1999
Date: Thu, 4 Nov 99 13:27:36 EST
Message-Id: <9911041827.AA08976@vivaldi.mit.edu>
From: Tom Cavin <tec@ai.mit.edu>
To: Kris Nyzio <knyzio@MIT.EDU>
Cc: cavin@MIT.EDU, is-home@MIT.EDU, ridgway@MIT.EDU
In-Reply-To: <v03020902b44743b8b225@[18.152.0.126]>
Hi Kris,
The change that you put in is fine, but it isn't exactly what I was
looking for, or maybe it just isn't clear to me.
The main certificate page
http://web.mit.edu/is/help/cert/index.html
has these main headings:
Quick Guide
Detailed Information
Get Certificates Now
Netscape Preferences
Renew Expired
Certificates
Help with Common
Problems
Additional Help
Upgrading from Netscape
4.05 to 4.6
but is missing the case of simple renewal or update of current
certificates.
For my case, I already had a current personal certificate that would
expire in December of 1999. I wanted to get a certificate that would
be good through next semester. So I looked at the above choices and I
didn't see anything that would be and obvious choice like "Renew Current
Certificates", "Update Existing Certificates", or even "Get
Certificates for Spring Semester".
The options implicit in the menu selections seemed to indicate that you
could get your original personal certificate, and that you could renew
your personal certificate once it has expired, but there was no
apparent way to prevent your personal certificate from expiring or to
replace a valid certificate that will expire soon with a valid
certificate that will expire later.
I don't recall exactly what I did, but I now have two personal
certificates, one that expires in December of 1999 and a second that
expires in July of 2000.
There are a few other problems that aren't quite simple. Certificates
can apparently be used for two different purposes: authentication for
services, and encryption or digital signatures. It is quite
reasonable for a certificate that is used for services to expire
periodically, but one that has been used for cryptographic purposes
can't expire without consequential loss of information. Therefore, it
seems reasonable to either have two classes of personal certificates
or to keep certificates long after they have expired for services.
I'm not sure of the complete solution, but I think a general section
on "Renewing Certificates" -- with a subsection for expired certificates
as a special case -- might be clearer. It might also be a good idea
to have a section on "Using and Maintaining Certificates" to cover the
various ways that certificates can and should be used.
Thanks for taking the time to read this long response.
--Tom
Kris Nyzio writes:
> Hi Tom,
> The Certificates page has been modified to incorporate your suggestion for
> improvement. There is now a section titled "Renew Expired Certificates".
> Thanks for your feedback on this page,
> Kris Nyzio
>
> >Suggestions (provide URL):
> >
> >http://web.mit.edu/is/help/cert/
> >
> >The above page should have a bullet on renewing certificates. In
> >particular, what is the procedure to get a new certificate BEFORE your
> >current certificate(s) have expired?
> >
> >Thanks,
> >
> > --Tom
--
Tom Cavin Phone: (617) 258 - 7806
WCCF Computer Operations Manager Email: tec@ai.mit.edu
