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OmegaSphere is an option I would look at. Nothing like what you are talking about in their listed pricing, but a lot of their business is based on custom packages they do for people.

They don't advertise it but they do VPS hosting. (OmegaSphere). Excellent support, reliable service, no complaints... used them for 5 years now.

I buy my certificates through OmegaSphere. The service has been fine, and the price is low enough that it isn't worth the hassle to try and do it myself.

Note that they actually charge less for an intranet certificate than they would for an internet-facing certificate.

If you are just starting out, the way to go would be to get a dedicated server with hosting management software such as cPanel/WHM, preferrably from a company that will provide some management for you as well. There is also the 'reseller account' approach but for a variety of reasons I don't really recommend it (e.g. there are more potential and real problems which are outside of your control, and it becomes harder to do your support, among other things). If you aren't really prepared to make the $160-500/month investment for a decent server with some management, you might be better off pursuing a different opportunity.

Warning: You need to differentiate yourself somehow. This is a highly competitive market.

<plug type="shameless">We provide managed servers for a number of hosting companies. You worry about the billing and supporting your customers, we'll worry about your server and supporting you.</plug>

Get in touch with us at http://www.omegasphere.net/. We'd be happy to find something suitable to your needs and budget. In your case we could get you set up with colocation or give you root on hardware that we deal with for you.

We have extremely low client churn -- we make a point of treating every customer well and providing them with excellent support.

My company (OmegaSphere Inc.) and many others do this kind of thing on a regular basis, and will help you do so for you for a reasonable fee.

There are lots of tricks on either side to negotiating the best possible price, and having a third party involved can be helpful in many circumstances. In addition it can be helpful so that an escrow process can happen if the parties involved do not have an existing and trusting relationship.

Furthermore, you get to take advantage of your broker's real world experience. There are the official registry processes and then there is what actually happens. Some registrars are much easier to work with than others. If you get a broker that either is a registrar or has a solid relationship with one then they can work out all the fiddly details of the transfer itself on your behalf.

I've had really good service from OmegaSphere. Their SSL Certificates are properly validated and issued with your information right on the certificate (rather than some silly ID # only system). Their tech support was more than happy to walk me through the problems I had (I hadn't done this before and didn't realize you need to get the name on the certificate the same as all your image links to avoid warning messages in some browsers) and seemed extremely competent. Prices are pretty reasonable. Given the service I had I will certainly buy from them again.

I've had really good service from OmegaSphere. Their SSL Certificates are properly validated and issued with your information right on the certificate (rather than some silly ID # only system). Their tech support was more than happy to walk me through the problems I had (I hadn't done this before and didn't realize you need to get the name on the certificate the same as all your image links to avoid warning messages in some browsers) and seemed extremely competent. Prices are pretty reasonable. Given the service I had I will certainly buy from them again.

We issue SSL Certificates with prices a good deal less than hundreds upon hundreds of dollars. Our certificates are issued with a root that already exists in browsers, and we do ID verification (but remain flexible - we will issue certificates to both corporations and natural persons, i.e. people). In terms of keeping the encryption meaningful, using a self-signed certificate doesn't cut it - it makes it trivial for the right person to perform a man-in-the-middle attack.

As much as I'd love to say otherwise, the SSL business is actually quite competitive these days -- the days of a 128-bit certificate costing at least $895 are long gone.

Here's google's cache of the front page that we beautifully slashdotted. Also, on a related note, many companies offer free SSL certificates if you do a little business with them. Ever-popular GoDaddy recently joined the ranks of those companies. They started offering free SSL certs to open-source projects.

Let me get this straight: Are you telling me online banking has been outlawed?

Or any other site that uses SSL Certificates? Our customers will be most upset...

So will PayPal, eBay, some webmail people, online grades systems, pretty much any e-commerce site, the list goes on...

Basically any implementation of crypto that achieves perfect forward secrecy?

I just like seeing dirty laundry... I cowardly admit it. ;)

I did look at your site... with a NPA of 604... you are good in my books... and $50 in any currency isn't that bad... ( aprox 2 months home internet access for me).

There is some Slanderous content on the page you linked to that helps me know whom you are talking about. ( left as exercise for the reader )

The reason I am not mentioning any URLs or names is that I don't want to be seen as badmouthing competitors, as that isn't the point of my post. I'm against the practice, not the people doing it.

Re: Getting a certificate without a corporation, you don't need one. We are happy to issue SSL certificates to individuals - instead of corporate documents we ask for personal ones (i.e. passport, driver's license, etc.).

I took a look, they haven't put the domain on registrar-lock.

Just transfer the domain to another registrar - you won't lose anything other than a registrar you aren't happy with (i.e. the existing time on the registration is extended by a year).

(Shameless plug: We offer domain name registration for $10.95/year.)

I've looked up your domain with PIR (they run .org now, not VeriSign), and they are showing Gandi as the registrar of record. That means it doesn't really matter what NetSol thinks, they don't have any control over the domain any more. You needn't worry.

<plug type="shameless">Maybe when it comes time to renew you will consider using OmegaSphere for your domain name needs? We do good support, and apparently have the approval of an AC right here on /.! (competitive pricing too, at $10.95/domain/year)</plug>

I've looked up your domain with PIR (they run .org now, not VeriSign), and they are showing Gandi as the registrar of record. That means it doesn't really matter what NetSol thinks, they don't have any control over the domain any more. You needn't worry.

<plug type="shameless">Maybe when it comes time to renew you will consider using OmegaSphere for your domain name needs? We do good support, and apparently have the approval of an AC right here on /.! (competitive pricing too, at $10.95/domain/year)</plug>

We've been pretty pleased with OmegaSphere.

They do domain name registration for $10.95/year, and that includes free email forwarding, DNS, URL forwarding, and a few other things.

We also used them to buy an SSL certificate -- they offer them for $49/year (I think its a bit cheaper if you buy them multiple years at a time, not sure). The certificates work just as well as the ones costing 10-20 times the amount (VeriSign, Thawte, etc.).

We had slight problem installing the SSL certificate, but it turned out to have just been a typo in our Apache config file. They had us send them our config file, and they spoted the mistake for us. Very fast support replies too.

And no, I'm not getting paid for this... :)

We've been pretty pleased with OmegaSphere.

They do domain name registration for $10.95/year, and that includes free email forwarding, DNS, URL forwarding, and a few other things.

We also used them to buy an SSL certificate -- they offer them for $49/year (I think its a bit cheaper if you buy them multiple years at a time, not sure). The certificates work just as well as the ones costing 10-20 times the amount (VeriSign, Thawte, etc.).

We had slight problem installing the SSL certificate, but it turned out to have just been a typo in our Apache config file. They had us send them our config file, and they spoted the mistake for us. Very fast support replies too.

And no, I'm not getting paid for this... :)

We've been pretty pleased with OmegaSphere.

They do domain name registration for $10.95/year, and that includes free email forwarding, DNS, URL forwarding, and a few other things.

We also used them to buy an SSL certificate -- they offer them for $49/year (I think its a bit cheaper if you buy them multiple years at a time, not sure). The certificates work just as well as the ones costing 10-20 times the amount (VeriSign, Thawte, etc.).

We had slight problem installing the SSL certificate, but it turned out to have just been a typo in our Apache config file. They had us send them our config file, and they spoted the mistake for us. Very fast support replies too.

And no, I'm not getting paid for this... :)

I am the owner of OmegaSphere, a web hosting company (among other things). We frequently get customers who wish to switch to us and realize that they don't actually have their name on the records of the registration -- its shocking the number of web hosting companies that put their own names on the registration as a means of holding their customers hostage. Its not good for the customers, and its not good for the reputation of the industry.

To a large extent its a problem that can only be solved through education, i.e. people knowing they should be the ones with their name on it.

Sometimes I have been able to help clients transfer their name to us and fix the records despite the best attempts of their old (and now about to be bad-mouthed everywhere) host, using various methods which I won't go into but people are welcome to contact us about if you want some help...

I don't quite understand the logic of it: Your customer has decided to use a different company as a host. They blackmail you with your domain. After you have the situation resolved, whether it is by accepting the blackmail or other means, are you going to: A) Tell all your friends that you simply prefer your new host, or B) Tell all your friends what a HORRIBLE experience you had with your old host, NEVER do business with them, and by the way my new host is awesome. Etc.

I would suspect B.

Never underestimate the power of word of mouth, especially in the internet age. I know its how we get a lot of our customers -- but it could just as easily be how we lost them if we started acting against the best interests of our customers.

Cost of certificates? Fortunately, the verisign monopoly is dead :).

Free email certificates are available. Yes, the page says they are for outlook, but that is more of a reference to the fact that the ability to use them is built into outlook already.

Hmm.... I find it kind of sad that a big company won't pony up the $49 a cheap ssl certificate costs these days.. (eg: http://www.omegasphere.net/ssl/ , where I sell SSL certificates).

In fact if it is only for intranet usage you can get one for $39. You don't have to woorry about distributing a CA certificate because the root CA cert will already be on the boxes.

As a person who runs an inexpensive domain registration site, I object to that statement :).

We include URL & email forwarding. We don't have any ads involved though...

Don't use registrars with policies you don't like might be a more accurate statement.

Ouch!

Fortunately, there is a little competition in the domain name business these days (unlike the old network solutions setup)...

For instance, with the domain name registration site I run, http://www.omegasphere.net/domain/ ($10.95/year), you could send a support request in and we would most happily send you a PDF that you could sign & fax in (or scan and email) to have your domain name transferred to us (which would give you access to it again). We also throw in DNS, email forwarding, URL forwarding, dynamic DNS, and a few other things :). Usual response time after faxing it in: a couple of days. In a hurry? Mark "RUSH" on it - no, there isn't a charge.

It never ceases to amaze me: even today Network Solutions continues to treat its customers poorly. They continue to make it difficult to transfer away from them. I simply can't understand how they can afford to do that to their reputation; they certainly don't compete on price.

You might find it more cost effective to get a domain name from or transfer your domain name to a registrar that includes dynamic DNS service & url forwarding framing.

<plug>
I run a domain registration site, OmegaSphere, and for $10.95/yr, I include those features as standard (as well as email forwarding and a few other things).
</plug>