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Domain: amnet-comp.com

Stories and comments across the archive that link to amnet-comp.com.

Comments · 2

  1. Re:Roll your own (complete instructions) by Roblimo · · Score: 3 · on Why Are SSL Certificates So Expensive?
    My friend Joe, at Amnet Computer, has always made his own certs and has never had any problems. He stores no credit card info or other potentially compromising information on any publically-accessible machine. The sole purpose of his cert is to create an SSL "pipe" between your machine and his "public" one, so there is no reason for him to pay VeriSign or others to have a little logo on his page. Joe's customers tend to be sophisticated (Linux or BSD) computer buyers who know perfectly well what he's doing and why, so the little logo isn't going to impress them one way or the other.

    Yes, the insurance aspect of the big-time cert companies is nice, but more important for many businesses that do B2C ecommerce is that the "VeriSign" logo, like one from the Chamber of Commerce or Better Business Bureau, helps assure customers that there's a substantial business behind the Web site they see. But plenty of businesses do well without joining a CoC or the BBB (the best auto repair shop I've found locally belongs to neither, for instance), especially those that foster close personal relationships with customers.

    I have never taken credit cards directly online for my limo business. I started it in pre-Internet days and still have the same old XON credit card terminal I got in the late 80s, and it still works fine. Customers either hand us their cards when they get in one of the limos or, if it's something like a business person whose company is paying or a celeb whose travel is being covered by a production company (which is how most celebrity transport is handled, BTW), a secretary or other admin person usually calls or faxes directly with the trip/charter information anyway and includes the credit card number and expiration date in that call or fax.

    My limo partner and I are considering taking cards directly online before long. Small businesses (like ours) that don't have (*cough*) huge amounts of VC or IPO cash tend to be far more conservative than wing-ding companies because if we don't make a profit almost every single month we go broke. (The garage where we take our limos is *just now* thinking about putting up a Web site.)

    But if I decide to take credit cards online, I am *not* going to fork over $200 or $300 or $400 for a third-party cert. I'll just put an ordering page -- one page -- on Joes's server and ride on *his* cert in return for a small fee, like maybe a six-pack or two.

    - Robin

  2. Go ahead! And use Linux, too... by Roblimo · · Score: 1 · on Ask Slashdot: Computer Charities for the Children?

    Geeks Into the Streets is a Baltimore area ad-hoc group that works to bring 'net access to poor children. Jeff Covey, who started the whole thing, maintains Andover's Linux.DaveCentral site. Our good friend Joe "the mad Russian" Valadorsky of Amnet Computer contributed a LOT of equipment and expertise, and a whole LOT of others have chipped in with parts, labor, advice, and encouragement.

    All of this was an outgrowth of the UMBC LUG that meets at University of Maryland Baltimore County.

    Any LUG could do this. This just happens to be an excellent, very helpful and public-minded bunch. If you want to learn more about how your LUG could do something similar, please contact either me or Jeff. We're both *more than happy* to help other people get involved in community "geek outreach projects" by starting their own ad-hoc groups.