Using Win2K Certificate Services to Configure a Standalone CA, Part 2

In "Using Win2K Certificate Services to Configure a Standalone CA, Part 1," January 2002, InstantDoc ID 23373, I showed you how to install and configure 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. Now, let's take a close look at the second half of that proposition: issuing and mapping certificates.

Issuing Certificates
Before you start issuing certificates, you need to make some important decisions: Who will be able to request and issue certificates? Because you're setting up the CA to issue certificates to extranet users, you have a couple of options for creating, distributing, and managing those certificates. You can give extranet users the access they need to request their own certificates, or you can assign someone the task of creating and distributing certificates. . . .