JPC Enterprises presents

Having trouble entering our Secure Web Area?
(A little note of explanation...)

Certificates are used on the Internet as a method of identifying each party to the other. You can obtain a "personal" certificate that would identify any message or information you sent as actually coming from you (or at least your machine...)

Site "security" certificates are used to identify "secure areas" on the Internet to you (your machine). These certificates are issued by companies who validate that our company and web server exists. A secure web server cannot operate in a secure mode without the use of certificates.

You can collect numerous site certificates as you surf the net.  Each certificate verifies a site or the certifying authority (CA). Our certificate provider, RSA Data Security, Inc relies on Verisign Secure Server CA, who is a global provider of digital certificates. They are one of the largest Internet Certificate Authority worldwide and their certificates are "trusted" by all major browser and mail applications and are usually "preloaded" in their software.

So, when you visit our SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) website, you are first presented our hosting service's (Creative Innovations, Bedford Texas) secure area certificate identifying us. But our certificate is issued by Verisign/RSA, CA. If your erisign/RSA verification certificate is expired on your machine, your machine warns you that it cannot verify a valid Verisign/RSA certificate and therefore, it cannot vouch for us (hence, an "unauthorized security signature").

The error message you received is probably due to your browser having an out of date Verisign/RSA  certificate. Netscape 3.x will usually present you with a dialog box with security information and normally offers you three options.

 If you respond to accept the certificate identification information for all visits (now and in the future until the certificate expires), our certificate will be added to your list of site certificates and you will proceed into the registration area unabated.

You can also respond to decline to visit in which case the certificate will not be added and you do not access the site. The last option is to visit the site which will accept the certificate for a single session only without adding the certificate to your list of site certificates.  You will have to select this option every time you enter the secure area of our site.

You will find your site certificates stored in the Netscape Navigator preferences area. In Netscape 3.x, you would chose Options, Security Preferences, and all of the certificates within your machine appear in a panel on the left. After highlighting a certificate, you can then delete it or edit it. If you edit the certificate you will see who it has been issued to and when it expires, etc. You are also given options about how to handle sites relying on this certificate provider such as allow connections, do not allow connections and warn before sending date to sites certified with this certificate authority.

Microsoft's Internet Explorer should have a similar area.

I hope this lengthy explanation helps you feel comfortable with just "accepting" our certificate when prompted with the security warnings.

Please bookmark our site ( www.ceuweb.com ) NOT the individual category offerings (since we will not always name them the same thing every year) to make it easier to find us next year! 

We're sorry if you've had difficulties, but the benefits of offering a commercially secure web site and protecting your personal information should outweigh the disadvantages.

Please let us know [ webmaster@ceuweb.com ] if there are any further problems.

If you'd like to know more about SSL security, please follow this link http://www.verisign.com/products/site/faq/40-bit.html 

Copyright ©1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002  JPC Enterprises. Absolutely no rights of distribution by sale or other transfer of ownership or by rental, lease or lending, preparation of derivative works or reproduction, in whole or in part, is granted. No text, graphics or photos may be downloaded and used on another Internet site, without the expressed permission of JPC Enterprises. To obtain permission or further information, send your request to webmaster@ceuweb.com. JPC Enterprises reserves the rights to actively protect against infringement.
Last revised: October 14, 2006