How do I configure ZXTM with Internet Explorer 7?

One of the new features of Internet Explorer 7 is an emphasis on security - something that you'll notice if you try and visit the ZXTM admin server web pages:

This alarming-looking page is advising you not to view the ZXTM's web-based interface! So, what's going on?

The ZXTM admin site uses a technology called 'SSL' to protect the it. SSL has two main features:

• It encrypts the communication between you and the site, preventing other people from spying on the web pages that you are viewing and stopping them from discovering the passwords that you use to access it.
• It checks that the website that you are visiting really is who it claims to be.

The Internet Explorer warning message is related to this second feature - checking the ownership of the site. This is where SSL gets complicated. A website that uses SSL has what is called a 'SSL certificate'. This certificate describes the owner of the website. Your web browser looks at this certificate and decides whether or not to trust it.

Internet Explorer (and all other web browsers) will only trust a certificate if it is signed by a known 'Certificate Authority'. To get a site's SSL certificate signed by one of these authorities, you have to pay them money and let them do some checks to confirm your identity. Examples of CAs include companies such as Verisign and GeoTrust.

By default, when ZXTM is installed, it will generate its own SSL certificate, in a process called 'self-signing'. This lets the website be encrypted, but without the incurred cost and hassle of having to apply to a company to validate your identity. So, Internet Explorer is saying that it cannot prove that your ZXTM admin website is who it claims to be.

Clicking on the 'continue to this website' link will allow you to access the ZXTM site as normal:

Note that Internet Explorer still continues to warn about the site's certificate, by showing the 'certificate error' message and highlighting the URL in red. This is expected and you can log in as normal.

How can these errors be prevented?

ZXTM allows to you to replace the auto-generated SSL certificate with one that you have bought from a Certificate Authority. Just go to the System->Security page and upload the new certificate. If it is correctly signed, then Internet Explorer will accept it without errors.

Alternatively, you can configure Internet Explorer to accept the admin server's existing certificate. Click on the button that says 'certificate error' and then click on 'view certificates'. Then, click on the 'Install Certificate...' button. Finally, pick the 'Trusted Root Certification Authorities' store. This will install the certificate, and when you visit the website in the future, the security warnings will no longer appear.

Ben [Zeus Dev Team] 29 June 2006