Customer Support » Installing and using your certificate in Netscape Communicator 4.75 for Mac

Installation of your own certificate.

When your receive your certificate, choose 'Security' in the Toolbar and then click on 'Messenger'. Choose the 'certificate for your signed and encrypted messages'
In that 'Security Advisor's Messenger Security Settings' you can easily manage every thing about your certificates.

Send secure e-mails with Netscape Messenger

To start sending secure e-mails:

1. You need to use the latest Netscape Communicator version with its Messenger e-mail package
2. Ask for your digital certificate on the GlobalSign web site: http://www.globalsign.net/
3. Use your digital certificate to digitally sign and/or encrypt your e-mail

Digitally signing your e-mail with Messenger

The first step to securing your e-mail messages is to sign them with your digital certificate. In that way the recipient of your message can verify that it was really you who sent the message and that it was not altered enroute.
Signing a message does not affect contents of the message in any way or protect the message from being intercepted and read by someone other than the intended recipient. To ensure that only the intended recipient can read a message, you must also encrypt the message.
If the recipient of your signed message uses an S/MIME-enabled e-mail package, he can still read your message. Your digital signature shows up as an attachment.
The signed icon shows that the message was signed. When you receive a signed message, the signed icon appears when you view it in Netscape

Your e-mail program verifies the digital signature automatically for you.

Messenger also automatically stores the sender's digital certificate, enabling future messages sent to that person to be encrypted.

Signing individual messages

To sign an outgoing message:

1. Click on the 'message sending options' tab in the message window
2. Enable the 'signed' checkbox

Automatically signing every outgoing message

To configure your Messenger Security Settings to automatically sign outgoing messages:

1. Click on the 'security' icon on the toolbar or open choose 'security info' from the 'communicator' menu
2. Click on the 'messenger' link to display the Messenger Security Settings
3. To automatically sign outgoing messages, enable the 'sign mail messages, when it is possible' checkbox

Encrypting / scrambling your e-mail messages with Messenger

The second step to securing your e-mail messages is to encrypt them.
E-mail messages are relatively easy for other people to intercept or read.
You can avoid this by encrypting your message so that only the addressee of the message can read it.
Encrypting with Messenger is as easy as signing.
To encrypt your message you need to have a copy of the digital certificate of the intended recipient. When you receive a signed message, Communicator automatically stores the sender's digital certificate.
You can also find someone's certificate in the online directory of the certification authority (GlobalSign,…)
To have more information about maintaining digital certificates in your Contacts List, see "Managing correspondents' digital certificates"
When you receive an encrypted message, Messenger will automatically decrypt it. When the message is viewed, an icon is displayed indicating that the message was encrypted when it was sent, or both signed and encrypted.

Managing the digital certificates in your contact list

To view one of your contacts'digital certificate:

1. Open the Netscape Communicator Security Advisor by clicking on the 'Security' icon in the toolbar or by choosing 'Security Info' from the 'Communicator' menu.
2. Click on the 'People' link in the Certificates category.
3. Select the person whose digital certificate you want to view.
4. Click the 'View' button.

To verify one of your contacts' digital certificates:

1. Open the Netscape Communicator Security Advisor by clicking on the 'Security' icon in the toolbar or by choosing 'Security Info' from the 'Communicator' menu.
2. Click on the 'People' link in the Certificates category.
3. Select the person whose digital certificate you want to verify.
4. Click the 'Verify' button. Communicator checks to see if the digital certificate was issued by a recognized certificate authority and checks the expiration date of the digital certificate.

To delete a digital certificate from your contacts list:

1. Open the Netscape Communicator Security Advisor by clicking on the 'Security' icon in the toolbar or by choosing 'Security Info' from the 'Communicator' menu.
2. Click on the 'People' link in the Certificates category.
3. Select the person whose digital certificate you want to remove.
4. Click the 'Delete' button. Once you delete the digital certificate, you will no longer be able to send encrypted e-mails to that person.