Why should I use SSL when checking or sending email?

SSL encrypts and secures the information exchanged between your computer and other computers. By using SSL when checking or sending email, you help ensure that your communications can not be viewed by a third party.

How do I know I can trust an SSL certificate?

SSL certificates are issued by Certificate Authorities (CAs) including: VeriSign, GeoTrust, Thawte, and others. Certificates that are issued by these CAs are stable and trustworthy. You may sometimes be prompted by your web browser or email program to accept or trust a certificate. In that case, your browser or email program will normally tell you why it is prompting you and will allow you to view the certificate.

What is an SSL certificate?

An SSL certificate is an electronic certificate that tells your computer that it can trust a web server to make a secure connection. The certificate is signed by two parties: the Certificate Authority (CA) that issues the certificate, and the owner of the certificate (usually the owner of the web site you are connecting to).

What is SSL?

SSL stands for "Secure Sockets Layer." It is a protocol for transmitting data securely via the Internet. Many websites use SSL to send confidential information such as credit card numbers, social security numbers, and other private information.

Why am I asked to accept a certificate every time I open my email software?

When your computer makes a secure SSL connection to a server on the Internet, that server must have an SSL certificate to verify the trustworthiness of the secure server. The program on your computer requesting the SSL connection has a list of SSL certificates that it will trust to make a secure connection. If the certificate on our Promail Server is not trusted by your email program, then you will be asked to accept or trust the certificate each time you open your email program and make a connection to our Promail Server.

Please note that making an SSL connection to our Promail Server is optional. Instructions on configuring your mail program to use SSL.