Requesting Your S/MIME Certificate

Posted by: rrichar2 on September 1, 2011Tags: certificates, security

1. Open Firefox
   NOTE: If you have already configured a master password in Firefox, skip to Step 4.
2. From within Firefox select Options from the Tools menu (or Preferences from the Firefox menu if you are using Mac OS X); click the Security tab; Click the Change Master Password button
3. 
4. Enter the password, confirm it and click the OK button.
   NOTE: Use the password quality meter to ensure that this is a good quality.
5. Go to: https://transact.bates.edu/crs and log in using your network username and password.
6. Click the Request a certificate button and follow any on-screen instructions.
7. Check your e-mail for instructions from Comodo (the certificate authority we use for SSL certificates)
   NOTE: DO NOT click on the button in the e-mail unless you are positive that doing so will open Firefox.
8. Copy the URL from the Comodo e-mail (the one below the button) into your Firefox Web browser.
9. Enter your e-mail address and the password provided in the instructions from Comodo, then click Submit & Continue, enter your master password if prompted and follow any on-screen instructions.
   NOTE: At this point the new certificate should be loaded into the Firefox cryptographic device. Now you need to export the certificate from Firefox so that it can be imported into Thunderbird.
10. From within Firefox select Options from the Tools menu (or Preferences from the Firefox menu if you are using Mac OS X); click the Advanced tab; click the Encryption sub-tab; click the View Certificates button; click the Your Certificates tab
11. 
12. Select your new certificate (the one from USERTRUST) and click the Backup button
13. Name the file client-certificate.p12
14. Enter your master password
15. Choose a strong password for the backup file, click the OK button, and click the OK buttons on the remaining two windows.