Shopping on line can be easy, simple and save you lots of money. It can also take a lot of your time, frustrate you, and result in unwanted purchases. Now the same can be said for regular high street shopping, but with the vast opportunity presented by the Internet it will pay you to spend a few minutes reading this and understanding how to better optimize your Thawte shopping experience:
1. Compare - without doubt the biggest advantage that the Thawte offers shoppers today is the ability to compare thousands of Thawte at a time. This is a great thing, but not necessarily all the time! Too much can be daunting at times so take advantage of the great comparison sites and where possible let them do the hard work for you.
2. Research - if it has been said it will be on the internet. Ignorance is no longer a justifiable reason for buying the wrong thing. Take the time to research in detail everything that you could possible want to know about
3. Testimonials - don't know anybody that has bought a Thawte? Wrong! If the Thawte is good the internet will let you know. Use the Internet as a friend and get testimonials before you buy.
4. Questions - Got a question about Thawte then search the Forums, FAQ's, Blogs etc. Don't be afraid to ask .....
5. Reputation - Never heard of the company selling Thawte? Don't worry, no reason why you should know every company in the world, but you know someone that does! Use the internet to find out what people are saying about Thawte and build up a picture of their reputation for sales, returns, customer service, delivery etc.
6. Returns - still worried that even after all of the above your Thawte wont be what you want? Check out the returns policy. There is so much competition now that someone, somewhere is bound to offer the terms that you are comfortable with.
7. Feedback - happy with your Thawte then let people know, after all you are depending on others people input in your buying decision, so why not give a little back.
8. Security - check for the yellow padlock on the Thawte site before you buy, and the s after http:/ /i.e. https:// = a secure site
9. Contact - got a question about Thawte, or want to leave a comment then check out the sites contact page. Reputable companies have them and respond.
10. Payment - ready to pay for your Thawte, then use your credit card or PayPal! Be aware of companies that don't accept them, there may be genuine reasons but given the huge amount of choice you have when buying online there is no reason at all not to buy via credit card or PayPal.
Thawte Consulting is a
certificate authority (CA) for
X.509 certificates. Thawte, (pronounced like "thought"), was founded in 1995 by
Mark Shuttleworth in
South Africa and is the second largest public CA on the
Internet.
Origins
Thawte was originally run from Shuttleworth's parents' garage. Shuttleworth's original project was to produce a secure server not fettered by the restrictions on the export of cryptography which had been imposed by the U.S. The server, Sioux, was an adaptation of the Apache HTTP server; it was later integrated with the
Stronghold (software) web server as Thawte began to concentrate more on their certification activities.
Sale
In 1999 VeriSign acquired Thawte in a stock purchase from Shuttleworth for 575 million
United States dollar. Both VeriSign and Thawte had certificates in the first
Netscape browsers, and were thus 'grandfathered' into all other
web browsers. Before VeriSign's purchase, they each had about 50% of the market. VeriSign's
Public key certificate rollover was due to take place on 1 January
2000 - an unfortunate choice considering the imminent Y2K bug. (Thawte had a similar rollover in July 1998.) The purchase of Thawte ensured there would be no business loss over Y2K.
The sale enabled Shuttleworth to become the second
space tourism, and to found the
Ubuntu (linux distribution) project.
Web of trust
Thawte also provides free client certificates which can be used to sign emails or to assert one's identity to a web site. These certificates are based on a Web of trust model (similar to CAcert.org). In this case, your identity is assured by meeting one or more
Thawte Notaries who will need to see identification and keep a copy of it (for at least five years). Each notary can assign a certain number of points based on their experience; once you have acquired a certain number of points (currently 50) you can request a certificate with your name in it as well as your email address, and another level of points (currently 100) will allow you to become a notary yourself. (Certificates issued to people who currently have fewer than 50 points in the Web of Trust will have "Thawte Freemail Member" in the name field, rather than the certificate owner's name.)
See also
External links
- Thawte Consulting - World-Wide Web Site
- Thawte's Web of Trust
Thawte Consulting is a certificate authority (CA) for
X.509 certificates. Thawte, (pronounced like "thought"), was founded in 1995 by
Mark Shuttleworth in
South Africa and is the second largest public CA on the Internet.
Origins
Thawte was originally run from Shuttleworth's parents' garage. Shuttleworth's original project was to produce a secure server not fettered by the restrictions on the
export of cryptography which had been imposed by the U.S. The server, Sioux, was an adaptation of the Apache HTTP server; it was later integrated with the
Stronghold (software) web server as Thawte began to concentrate more on their certification activities.
Sale
In 1999
VeriSign acquired Thawte in a stock purchase from Shuttleworth for 575 million United States dollar. Both VeriSign and Thawte had certificates in the first
Netscape browsers, and were thus 'grandfathered' into all other web browsers. Before VeriSign's purchase, they each had about 50% of the market. VeriSign's
Public key certificate rollover was due to take place on
1 January 2000 - an unfortunate choice considering the imminent Y2K bug. (Thawte had a similar rollover in July 1998.) The purchase of Thawte ensured there would be no business loss over Y2K.
The sale enabled Shuttleworth to become the second
space tourism, and to found the Ubuntu (linux distribution) project.
Web of trust
Thawte also provides free client certificates which can be used to sign emails or to assert one's identity to a web site. These certificates are based on a Web of trust model (similar to
CAcert.org). In this case, your identity is assured by meeting one or more
Thawte Notaries who will need to see identification and keep a copy of it (for at least five years). Each notary can assign a certain number of points based on their experience; once you have acquired a certain number of points (currently 50) you can request a certificate with your name in it as well as your email address, and another level of points (currently 100) will allow you to become a notary yourself. (Certificates issued to people who currently have fewer than 50 points in the Web of Trust will have "Thawte Freemail Member" in the name field, rather than the certificate owner's name.)
See also
External links
- Thawte Consulting - World-Wide Web Site
- Thawte's Web of Trust
