Please note that downloading a thawte certificate currently is only advertized to work in the following common browsers: Firefox/Netscape/SeaMonkey, Internet Explorer, Opera. However, Apple’s Safari also seems to work.

Unless your have already been certified by “Thawte Notaries” (the Mathematics Systems staff are Thawte Notaries), your email certificate will say “Thawte Freemail Member” instead of your name. It will be simpler to go ahead and contact the notaries before downloading and installing your email certificate.

  1. First log into the Thawte Personal Email Certificate website and click the “Login” button on your right.
  2. Enter your email address and password that you provided to Thawte upon signing up .
  3. You need to request a “X.509 Format Certificate” by clicking the red “request” button. This will open a new window which contains a list of browsers. Select the browser that you are using and, again, click request.
  4. Click the “next” button on the “Certificate Bears Name” page.
  5. Select the email address with which you would like to send encrypted email. You can later generate a different certificate for a different email address, if desired.
  6. Click “next” on the “Strong Extranet Identities” page.
  7. Click “accept” on the “Accept Defaut Extension” page.
  8. Ensure that the pul-down menu lists “2048 (High Grade)” and click “next”. If the pull-down menu does not list 2048, you should upgrade your browser.
  9. Your certificate is being generated. Please be patient. Depending upon your browse, you may be asked to create a new password to protect your certificate.
  10. Review the information in your certificate, and if everything is correct, click the “finish” button.
  11. Follow the “here” link to your Certificate Manager page.
  12. Likely, the Status of your newly created certificate is “pending”. You will recieve an email once your certificate is issued.