A security certificate verifies that the LabTutor Server Admin Pages are secure, thereby avoiding browser security warnings.
The user must install a certificate manually to confirm that the LabTutor Server is a trustworthy address. However, sometimes manually installing the certificate doesn’t stop the warnings. ADInstruments is aware that this protocol is not effective in 100% of cases. The problem results from Microsoft issues that are outside of our control.
We do use web security (HTTPS) to ensure that communications with the Administrative pages are secure. This is why the Administrative pages need a certificate and the Student pages (which use HTTP) don’t.
The procedure to download and install a LabTutor Server Browser Certificate is described:
- Log in to the LabTutor Server Admin pages and navigate to Server > Configuration and click the Download Certificate link.
- Click Open in the File Download dialog.
- Click Install Certificate in the Certificate Information dialog.
- Click Next.
- Select Place all Certificates in the Following Store, select Browse and choose the Trusted Root Certification Authorities folder.
- Follow the remaining steps in the Certificate Import Wizard.
Alternatively, a user can choose to not trust the certificate and simply accept the browser warnings each time they use the Admin Pages. This option may best suited to cases where the user does not often use a particular computer to access the Admin Pages.
A user can also manually download the certificate from the ‘configuration’ tab in LabTutor Server and double click the file to install it.