Using IE7 with self certifying HTTPS sites

For information about certificates, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Https

The Sandwell webmail service uses https to ensure that data sent between your browser and the webmail server is secure. Unfortunately, the service is self-certificated: a bank's website will have been certificated using one of the major certification providers, such as Verisign or Thawte. The webmail certificate was generated by Sandwell Council.

With IE6 and earlier, you were presented with a dialogue window each time you connected to the server, which you clicked to accept. With IE7, this has changed.

When you click on a website that is not authenticated by one of the certification authorities, you are taken to a web page that suggests that you should not continue; following this advice will mean that you cannot use the Sandwell Webmail website, and so cannot read your emails.

Instead, you will need to:

• click on the "Continue to this website (Not recommended)" link, which will take you to the website.
• Once there, notice that the website address is highlighted in red (to warn you), next to this is a "Certificate Error" box
• Click on the "Certificate Error" box
• Click on "View Certificate" in the window that opens
• Click on "Install Certificate" in the Certificate window.

Future visits to the website should now bypass the warning dialogue described earlier.

Please note: Contact other websites for their security advice before applying this solution elsewhere. You would expect a bank to have a fully verified certificate that will not need to be installed in this way.