Radke Land

When using programs to access the internet, lots of 'invisible' things happen all of the time. Some Radke Land services take advantage of end-to-end encryption. (Windows users looking for a quick fix can just scroll to the bottom) Here's how it works.:

Your computer connects to Radke Land, and either your computer tells Radke Land it would like a secure channel, or Radke Land tells yor computer that it would like a secure channel. At this point, the Radke Land servers present your computer with a certificate. The certificate serves two purposes: First, it tells your computer that the Radke Land you're connecting to is the same Radke Land you connected to last time. Second, it contains a key, which both ends of the connection will use to scramble and descramble the communications.

Your computer will then inspect the certificate, and look at any signatures attached. There are a handful of companies who will sign your certificate after they have proven (to their satisfaction) that you are who your certificate claims you are. If it has been signed by one of these companies, your computer silently accepts the certificate, and continues on without mentioning a thing. If it has not been signed by a certificate authority, your computer presents you with a warning (as it should).

So why doesn't Radke Land use signed certificates?

Getting a certificate signed by a certificate authority costs money ... something like $200/year. These guys have quite a racket going on, since it costs them almost nothing to sign your certificate. The only serious benefit is that the users aren't presented with a warning. All you need to do to deal with this inconvenience is click on the "Install Certtificate" (or something like that) button the first time you connect with Radke Land with a given program. That's it! If you are presented with the warning later (after you've installed the certificate), then the warning is relevant (it means that the certificate has changed, very unlikely; or somebody has hijacked Radke Land's domain names, and is impersonating the domain for some unknown purpose). Should this happen, please contact us.

Webmaster, webmaster, webmaster, I don't care about all that gobblygook! Just make windows stop bothering me! Ahrm ... sorry about that. Ok, here's what you do. If you're trying to get rid of the warning from some Microsoft stuff, open the following link with internet explorer (I can't believe I just said that!): https://mail.radkeland.org:993. You will be prompted about the certificate not being signed by a certificate authority. Click on "View Certificate", and on the window that opens, click on "Install Certificate". This will walk you through the standard wizard, where you click OK, OK, OK, and everything gets better.