Stunnel: Cost
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'Stunnel certificates Cost |
Stunnel certificates
You have a choice of using either a self-signed certificate for personal use or one signed by a recognised authority. I have provided a rough guide as to what a recognised authority will charge for a signed certificate and the irritation (inconvenience) of a self-signed certificate.
Certification authority
If you are running a secure server for business you must use a signed certificate from a reputable certification authority. If you wish you could purchase one for a personal server these are not cheap. I have seen comments like that before with no figures to back them up. Today 17-8-07 I downloaded some prices to give you some idea what you are looking at in terms of cost, companies were chosen at random.
| Supplier | 1 Year Pricing | 2 Year Pricing | 3 Year Pricing |
|---|---|---|---|
| 128 bit | 128 bit | 128 bit | |
| Verisign | $895.00 | $1,595.00 | N/A |
| Thawte | $449.00 | $849.00 | N/A |
| SSL.com | $249 | $499 | $619 |
| Globalsign | $229 | $422 | $563 |
| QualitySSL | $139 | $245 | $348 |
| Geotrust | $159.00 | $278.00 | $398.00 |
| PremiumSSL | £119.95 | £126.95 | £153.95 |
| sslONE | $119 | $164 | $199 |
| Digicert | $99 | $179 | $238 |
| InstantSSL Pro | £89.95 | £109.95 | £129.95 |
| InstantSSL | £64.95 | £89.95 | £114.95 |
Please note the table is not suitable for a direct compassion, I have shown only prices. Hidden in these prices are various other services that you may or may not want.
CAcert
For a personal secure server the above represents a significant cost. There are alternatives some pertain to be free generally this is a six month free trial by some of the above.
That said there is one that is truly free pay a visit to CAcert
For details how to obtain a certificate and run a secure server using Uniform Server read my write-up
Secure personal server
Personal secure server, by this I mean you are accessing your server from say a laptop or works PC and want a secure connection. The data is encrypted to prevent other Internet uses directly reading that data. Alternatively you allow friends access to your secure server and again want that data secure. In these scenarios a self-signed certificate will be adequate
The only minor irritation with self-signed certificates is browser pop-up warning messages. In general you receive one informing you a valid authority cannot verify the certificate and another saying the certificate does not match your domain name (unless you generated a certificate using your domain name).
To remove these annoying pop-ups click on permanently accept the certificate (unless you do not trust yourself). For completeness I have included screen shots for three browsers:
Screen shot Firefox 2.0.0.6
Uc_firefox_2.gif
Screen shot IE6
Screen shot Opera 9
The main reasons for showing these screen shots none of the browsers are draconian you can override their advice and accept the certificate as trusted one. Hence communicate over a secure encrypted connection.
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Ric |