Simister Family Networks Root Certificate Authority

A Simister Family Networks Guide

All secure access for Simister Family Networks is signed by our own Certificate Authority. A Certificate Authority is a special, self-signed SSL certificate that you can place in your Trusted Root Certificate store. This allows you to avoid security warnings and know you're information is safe when signing into secure areas of the Simister Family Networks web or mail systems.

Most web sites use certificates signed by one of the common top-level Certificate Authorities that are automatically loaded into your Trusted Root Certificate store. These are periodically updated when you update your browser and/or operating system. While this is convenient, these signed certificates can cost hundreds of dollars each year to renew. In order to save costs, Simister Family Networks has created its own Certificate Authority, and can provide the same level of security (if not more) when our Certificate Authority is correclty installed into your Trusted Root Certificate store.

The Simister Family Networks Root Certificate Authority is only used to sign certificates for Simister Family Networks and will not interfere with the security (or lack thereof) of other internet sites or services.

Installing the Simister Family Networks Certificate Authority

To install the Simister Family Networks Root Certificate Authority, point your browser to http://simister.net/ssl/sfn-ca-2025.crt. Some browsers will automatically ask you if you want to install the certificate, while other browsers will prompt to download the file. If prompted, save the file to your desktop and double-click it to install the certificate.

When installing the certificate, indicate that it is trusted to identify web sites, email users, and software developers. For your own security and protection, please verify the certificate and ensure the following values are correct. If you find any discrepancies, DO NOT INSTALL the certificate and immediately contact the site administrator.

  • Serial Number:
       00:E0:76:75:99:89:39:A3:C1
  • SHA256 Signature:
       7B:3E:B0:00:5F:B6:92:84:59:7B:A0:AC:9B:7C:63:27:12:5C:A8:70
  • SHA1 Fingerprint:
       2B:CD:EB:C5:81:A5:C2:FE:23:D8:DE:AF:B8:D0:49:81:3E:DE:E9:1C
  • MD5 Fingerprint:
       5C:F3:C1:F3:5E:4C:FF:FF:60:8E:1F:E6:C7:2A:CA:14

You may need to repeat this process for any other Trusted Root Certificate stores that you may have. It is possible that each application (web browser, mail agent, etc.) may use its own store for trusted certificates. Refer to the application's documentation or online help to determine how to install/import a new Trusted Root Certificate or Certificate Authority. You will need to download the certificate file (right-click on the link above and choose Save Link As).