Logging on to the Web Client

To access SOS Collab launch a web browser. If the SOS Collab Web Server is listening on port 80 (for unsecure connections) and port 443 (for secure connections), enter the domain name or IP address of the SOS Collab Web Server in the address bar of the browser. At the logon prompt, enter your user name and password. Click Login or press Enter.

If the SOS Collab Web Server is listening on different ports, enter the domain name or IP address and port number of the SOS Collab Web Server in the address bar of the browser in the following format:

http://servername:port (for unsecure access)
https://servername:port (for secure access)

(Please Note: Passwords are case-sensitive, but Usernames are not.)

Connecting to a Secure SSL Port (Web)

When you connect to a SOS Collab Web Server using a secure SSL port, your browser may present a dialog warning about connecting to a site with non-authorized certificates.

During the SOS Collab Server Setup, a set of SSL certificates is created. SSL certificates can be authorized by a universally accepted third party, such as VeriSign. If a recognized certificate authority has authorized the certificate, you will not be prompted to verify the Web Server's certificate. If a SSL certificate is not authorized, it does not mean it is not valid -- it only means that the certificate has not passed inspection from an independent third party. This third-party authorization helps prevent "man in the middle" attacks.

If a third party does not authorize the certificate, you can examine the certificate for yourself to see if it is trustworthy. By viewing the certificate information, you should see that the certificate origin is within your own company. Once you know the certificate matches a fully qualified domain name that you recognize as trustworthy, you can install it per the instructions below. In a sense, you become the authorizing agent for this particular certificate.

Once you tell your browser to accept and install the certificate upon an initial SSL connection, then you will no longer see the warning message on that browser.

With Netscape or Mozilla
For Mozilla, click Remember Certificate Permanently dialog. Depending on the version of Netscape, click either Remember Certificate Permanently or Accept This Certificate Forever. Your browser should no longer present certification warnings.

With Internet Explorer
When you try connecting to a secure SSL port, a Client Authorization dialog will be presented. If you want to read about SSL and Internet security, click More Info. Otherwise, select OK.

Next, a Security Alert dialog will be presented. Click on View Certificate. You should now see certificate information, including the name of your company's server machine that issued the certificate. If someone else was trying to pass a bogus certificate, this dialog would reveal it. To install the server certificate, click Install Certificate. Follow the directions within the Certificate Import Wizard.

Once the certificate is installed, it must be configured to be implicitly trusted. From the View Certificate dialog, select the Certification Path tab. Highlight the highest certificate authority (CA) in the chain (CA hostname CA). Select View Certificate, and then click Install Certificate a second time. Press OK to return to the original Security Alert warning and click Yes. At this point, Internet Explorer should no longer present certification warnings.

(Please Note: If the certificate was generated on a given machine and that certificate header referred to a hostname that does not match the machine name, the procedure above will not stop the warning dialogs from appearing. For example, this could happen if the certificate machine was renamed. In this case, the best choice would be to regenerate certificates. Report this discrepancy to your SOS Collab System Admin. Certificates may need to be regenerated.)