what is a digital certificate
 

The term digital certificate and lists other pages on the Web where you can find additional information digital signature. There is a lot of misleading about digital certificates (PKI certificates), public key and private key use, digital signatures, etc.

jamesright please expound further your problem for people to easily decipher it and share solution.

To make it simple a key is a group of numbers and letters in a file. That file can be located remotely on a PKI server. To use a network resource in this case the server has to send over the key to the user. (very simple example)

Now in the case of a HTTPS certificate it is basically again a file of letters and numbers. It also has a way to prove the web site and data are secure in it's transmission.


To give more details, you need to pick a single example. The key part is sort of the same in all cases but the way it gets used is unique to each use. Some keys are only half the key. Basically the key is either a way to unlock data by encryption or a key to allow access. (very simple)