Generating a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) - IIS 5 and 6

To complete your online request form for an SSL, you need a Certificate Signing Request (CSR). Follow these instructions to generate a CSR for your website. After you generate your CSR, copy and paste it into the CSR field on the SSL certificate request page.

Note: You must have at least Service Pack 1 installed before generating a CSR.

To Generate a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) for IIS 5 and 6

1. To get to the IIS Manager, click Start, Control Panel, Administrative Tools, and then Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.
2. In the IIS Manager, click + next to your local computer to view the complete list of services.
3. Click + next to Web Sites to view the complete list of website services.
4. Right-click the website (host) that you want to secure, and then select Properties.
5. Click the Directory Security tab, and then click Server Certificate in the Server communications area.
6. In the Welcome to the Web Server Certificate Wizard window, click Next.
7. In the Server Certificate window, select Create a new certificate, and then click Next.
8. Select Prepare the request now, but send it later, and then click Next.
9. In the Name and Security Settings window, enter a Name for the new certificate, select the bit length (2048 or higher), and then click Next.

   Note: The following characters are not accepted when entering information: < > ~ ! @ # $ % ^ * / \ ( ) ? &

10. In the Organization Information window, do the following, and then click Next.
    • Organization — Enter the name in which your business is legally registered. The organization must be the legal registrant of the domain name in the certificate request.
    • Organizational Unit — Use this field to differentiate between divisions or departments within an organization. For example, enter "Engineering" or "Human Resources."

      Note: If you are enrolling as an individual, enter the certificate requestor's name in the Organization field, and the Doing Business As (DBA) name in the Organizational Unit field.

11. In the Your Site's Common Name window, enter the common name of your website, and then click Next.
    • Common Name — The Common Name is the fully-qualified domain name — or URL — for which you plan to use your certificate, e.g., the area of your site you want customers to connect to using SSL.
    • An SSL certificate issued for www.coolexample.com is not valid for secure.coolexample.com. If you want your SSL to cover secure.coolexample.com, make sure the common name submitted in the CSR is secure.coolexample.com.
    • If you are requesting a Wildcard certificate, please add an asterisk (*) on the left side of the Common Name (e.g., *.coolexample.com or *.secure.coolexample.com). This only secures the subdomains one place before the common name.
12. In the Geographical Information window, enter the following, and then click Next:
    • Country — The two-letter International Organization for Standardization- (ISO-) format country code for the country in which your organization is legally registered.
    • State/Province — The full name of state or province where your organization is located. Do not abbreviate.
    • City/Locality — The full name of the city in which your organization is registered/located. Do not abbreviate.
13. In the Certificate Request File Name window, click Browse, enter a path and file name for the CSR so that you can easily locate it, and then click Next.
14. In the Request File Summary window, verify the information in the request, and then click Next.
15. In the Completing the Web Server window, click Finish.
16. Locate, copy, and paste the CSR into our online application.
    • To get a copy right click on the .req file, select Open With, and then select a text editor like Notepad.
    • Paste all of the text, including ----BEGIN NEW CERTIFICATE REQUEST---- and ----END CERTIFICATE REQUEST----, in our online request form.

For more information on how to request a certificate in our online request form, see Request an SSL certificate.