Re: SSL Certificates and ... Providers

2012-12-27 Thread Peter Kristolaitis
Yes, some SSL providers (mostly the overpriced ones) like to license 
their certs on a per-server basis.  If you read the contract language, 
this is how it's written.  However, this is strictly a contractual 
issue, not a technical one.   It's just a way to squeeze more money out 
of people who don't know any better.


Speaking strictly from a technical standpoint, there is nothing at all 
stopping you from using the same cert/keys on as many servers as you'd 
like.  There are SSL providers out there that are reasonable about the 
whole thing and sell you a cert, not a single-device-license.


- Pete


On 12/27/2012 2:47 PM, Blake Pfankuch wrote:

Ok, so this might be a little off topic but I am trying to validate something a 
vendor is telling me and hoping some people here have expertise in this area...

I am working with a SSL certificate provider.  I am trying to purchase a 
quantity of wildcard SSL certificates to cover about 60 FQDN's across 4 
domains.  Vendor is telling me that the Wildcard certificates are licensed per 
physical device it is installed on.  This means instead of using a single 
wildcard across 20 servers, I would have to buy 20 wildcard certs for 20 
servers.

This does not compute in my brain and also in my mind completely defeats the 
purpose of a wildcard cert as I know it.  Has anyone run into this before?

Thanks
Blake





Re: SSL Certificates and ... Providers

2012-12-27 Thread John Adams
Many vendors do this and I highly recommend someone like Digicert that won't 
play the per-machine licensing game with you.

Sent from my iPhone

On Dec 27, 2012, at 11:47 AM, Blake Pfankuch bl...@pfankuch.me wrote:

 Ok, so this might be a little off topic but I am trying to validate something 
 a vendor is telling me and hoping some people here have expertise in this 
 area...
 
 I am working with a SSL certificate provider.  I am trying to purchase a 
 quantity of wildcard SSL certificates to cover about 60 FQDN's across 4 
 domains.  Vendor is telling me that the Wildcard certificates are licensed 
 per physical device it is installed on.  This means instead of using a single 
 wildcard across 20 servers, I would have to buy 20 wildcard certs for 20 
 servers.
 
 This does not compute in my brain and also in my mind completely defeats the 
 purpose of a wildcard cert as I know it.  Has anyone run into this before?
 
 Thanks
 Blake



Re: SSL Certificates and ... Providers

2012-12-27 Thread Andrew Latham
On Thu, Dec 27, 2012 at 2:47 PM, Blake Pfankuch bl...@pfankuch.me wrote:
 Ok, so this might be a little off topic but I am trying to validate something 
 a vendor is telling me and hoping some people here have expertise in this 
 area...

 I am working with a SSL certificate provider.  I am trying to purchase a 
 quantity of wildcard SSL certificates to cover about 60 FQDN's across 4 
 domains.  Vendor is telling me that the Wildcard certificates are licensed 
 per physical device it is installed on.  This means instead of using a single 
 wildcard across 20 servers, I would have to buy 20 wildcard certs for 20 
 servers.

 This does not compute in my brain and also in my mind completely defeats the 
 purpose of a wildcard cert as I know it.  Has anyone run into this before?

 Thanks
 Blake

Blake

Many vendors assign to a single IP address.  When you send your CSR it
is for one server only. Look at some of the public/free CAs to find
some unbiased info.  You could hide everything behind a
proxy/loadbalancer if you want.


-- 
~ Andrew lathama Latham lath...@gmail.com http://lathama.net ~



Re: SSL Certificates and ... Providers

2012-12-27 Thread Larry LaBas
I did and it was vendor dependent which is why I switched a year and a half ago.

TTFN,
Larry

http://www.linkedin.com/in/llabas

On Dec 27, 2012, at 11:47, Blake Pfankuch bl...@pfankuch.me wrote:

 Ok, so this might be a little off topic but I am trying to validate something 
 a vendor is telling me and hoping some people here have expertise in this 
 area...
 
 I am working with a SSL certificate provider.  I am trying to purchase a 
 quantity of wildcard SSL certificates to cover about 60 FQDN's across 4 
 domains.  Vendor is telling me that the Wildcard certificates are licensed 
 per physical device it is installed on.  This means instead of using a single 
 wildcard across 20 servers, I would have to buy 20 wildcard certs for 20 
 servers.
 
 This does not compute in my brain and also in my mind completely defeats the 
 purpose of a wildcard cert as I know it.  Has anyone run into this before?
 
 Thanks
 Blake



Re: SSL Certificates and ... Providers

2012-12-27 Thread William Herrin
On Thu, Dec 27, 2012 at 2:47 PM, Blake Pfankuch bl...@pfankuch.me wrote:
 Vendor is telling me that the Wildcard certificates are licensed
 per physical device it is installed on.

If you stay at a $200 hotel, you pay an extra $10 for Internet access.
If you stay at a $40 motel, Internet is included. Same difference.

Regards,
Bill Herrin


-- 
William D. Herrin  her...@dirtside.com  b...@herrin.us
3005 Crane Dr. .. Web: http://bill.herrin.us/
Falls Church, VA 22042-3004



RE: SSL Certificates and ... Providers

2012-12-27 Thread Blake Pfankuch
Thanks everyone for the quick responses.  Our stuff is currently through 
Verisign because of the reliability of the name and the nature of the 
industry.  Any suggestions for who I should look at to replace them with?  I 
know I will be saving money, but looking to keep the name reliability as well.  
Thawte and GeoTrust have the same per server model, and looking to get away 
from that.

Thanks!
Blake

-Original Message-
From: Blake Pfankuch [mailto:bl...@pfankuch.me] 
Sent: Thursday, December 27, 2012 12:48 PM
To: NANOG (nanog@nanog.org)
Subject: SSL Certificates and ... Providers

Ok, so this might be a little off topic but I am trying to validate something a 
vendor is telling me and hoping some people here have expertise in this area...

I am working with a SSL certificate provider.  I am trying to purchase a 
quantity of wildcard SSL certificates to cover about 60 FQDN's across 4 
domains.  Vendor is telling me that the Wildcard certificates are licensed per 
physical device it is installed on.  This means instead of using a single 
wildcard across 20 servers, I would have to buy 20 wildcard certs for 20 
servers.

This does not compute in my brain and also in my mind completely defeats the 
purpose of a wildcard cert as I know it.  Has anyone run into this before?

Thanks
Blake



Re: SSL Certificates and ... Providers

2012-12-27 Thread Ken A
I've found rapidssl wildcards are generally the cheapest (~$120), and
are not limited to a number of servers. In practice, neither are the
other brands.
Ken

On 12/27/2012 1:47 PM, Blake Pfankuch wrote:
 Ok, so this might be a little off topic but I am trying to validate something 
 a vendor is telling me and hoping some people here have expertise in this 
 area...
 
 I am working with a SSL certificate provider.  I am trying to purchase a 
 quantity of wildcard SSL certificates to cover about 60 FQDN's across 4 
 domains.  Vendor is telling me that the Wildcard certificates are licensed 
 per physical device it is installed on.  This means instead of using a single 
 wildcard across 20 servers, I would have to buy 20 wildcard certs for 20 
 servers.
 
 This does not compute in my brain and also in my mind completely defeats the 
 purpose of a wildcard cert as I know it.  Has anyone run into this before?
 
 Thanks
 Blake
 
 

-- 
Ken Anderson




Re: SSL Certificates and ... Providers

2012-12-27 Thread Jimmy Hess
On 12/27/12, Blake Pfankuch bl...@pfankuch.me wrote:

It does make no sense, and I would say it is an unusual restriction,
but a CA can put any certificate usage restriction they want in their
policy,  and technically,   they have likely included a right to audit
and issue out a revokation/CRL for any certificates not following
their usage policy:  a common example would be a SSL cert used to
facilitate phishing.Make your X509 vendor take the language out of
the agreement  against  the use on multiple servers,   or buy from one
of the many dozens of other certificate providerswho issues
wildcards and has no such special restriction on certificate usage in
the certificate signing/usage policies.   :)


 Ok, so this might be a little off topic but I am trying to validate
 something a vendor is telling me and hoping some people here have expertise
 in this area...

 I am working with a SSL certificate provider.  I am trying to purchase a
 quantity of wildcard SSL certificates to cover about 60 FQDN's across 4
[snip]

--
-JH



Re: SSL Certificates and ... Providers

2012-12-27 Thread Christopher Morrow
On Thu, Dec 27, 2012 at 3:37 PM, Blake Pfankuch bl...@pfankuch.me wrote:
 Our stuff is currently through Verisign because of the reliability of the 
 name and the nature of the industry.

verisign sold this business (like 2+ years ago?), maybe it's time to
find someone else with a reliable name? (who hasn't sold the business
out from under you)



Re: SSL Certificates and ... Providers

2012-12-27 Thread Grant Ridder
Yes the Verisign auth stuff is done by Symantic as of 2010.

-Grant

On Thursday, December 27, 2012, Christopher Morrow wrote:

 On Thu, Dec 27, 2012 at 3:37 PM, Blake Pfankuch 
 bl...@pfankuch.mejavascript:;
 wrote:
  Our stuff is currently through Verisign because of the reliability of
 the name and the nature of the industry.

 verisign sold this business (like 2+ years ago?), maybe it's time to
 find someone else with a reliable name? (who hasn't sold the business
 out from under you)