Using Win2K Certificate Services to Configure a Standalone CA, Part 1

Perusing Microsoft's Web documentation about its Certificate Services can lead to much confusion about how you should configure this powerful product. When you consider Certificate Services' capability to integrate with other applications and services —such as Active Directory (AD), Microsoft Exchange Server, Web applications, and Windows applications— you can see why people are confused.

Let's look at using Certificate Services to solve one problem: Suppose you want to use Certificate Services on a Windows 2000 machine to create a Certificate Authority (CA) and generate certificates that your extranet users can use to access your Web site. You also want to use client certificates rather than set up a separate account for each user. This scenario takes advantage of only a fraction of Certificate Services' power, but it can demonstrate the core features of generating and managing certificates. . . .