As a follow up to this article from the past, I got email from a reader who gave a link to a useful SSL Checker. [visual-link-preview encoded=”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”] I’ve have used this site (and others) to inspect my SSL deployments. This is handy tool to add to your collection. Thanks for the tip Lisa! ~ScottGeek

So as I enter the world of suffering to get SSL working on some sites… I noticed that most SSL providers (at least the free one I’ve been using) – don’t provide the cert in the file format I need to do just a “import” within IIS. Go figure! So what to do? Well as it turns out there’s a utility to make the the crt formatted file into a pfx (which is what IIS likes). openssl  – look for it on the inter-tubes  openssl pkcs12 -export -out anotherCert.pfx -inkey private.key -in certificate.crt Another point… I generally use SSL For Free for creating quick free SSL certs- they only last 90 days,…