Before you can get an SSL certificate, you will need a static address for your router and a 'nice' domain name like 'tickets.yourvenue.org' that points to your firewall.

The static IP must be obtained first and is supplied by your ISP. It will be set up in your firewall/router so that it never changes and means that customers will always be able to find you on the internet.

These generally cost about $10 to $20 monthly in addition to your connection fees, unless you have a business internet package - in which case you probably get one included.

If you have a static IP and do not recall it, then open up a browser and type 'whatsmyip.org'. This asks a web site to tell you what the IP address of the outside of your router is. Alternately, you can enter the config mode for your router to determine the static IP address.

You will need to ask your ISP (or sometimes the people that host your external web site) to set up a DNS record to point to your static IP address if you do not have one.

You can think of this as a 'nice' name by which customers can find you, or if they see it in the URL area of the browser, they will be confident that they are connecting to the right web site.

Call up your ISP (or web site hosting company) and ask them to create a DNS record for 'tickets.myvenue.com' (where myvenue is replaced by your main web site name). As an example, if your main web site is www.artsman.com, then you would like your ISP to create a DNS record for tickets.artsman.com.

Possible DNS names that you may prefer from a marketing perspective are:

• tickets.myvenue.org
• boxoffice.myvenue.org
• sales.myvenue.org
• tm.myvenue.org
• secure.myvenue.org
• and if you have a mail server or other services already in your organization, we could use that as well.

Once the DNS record has been created and is propagated to the internet (this usually happens in a few hours but can take as long as 24 hours), the next step is to purchase and install the SSL certificate.

Hard Way - Self Purchased SSL

If you purchase your own SSL certificate from another source, you will need to install it yourself following the instructions provided to you during the purchase process and make sure it works. If you have any questions about your Self Purchased SSL certificate, contact the company from whom you purchased it for any and all assistance.

Easy Way - Buy your SSL from Arts Management Systems

Arts Management Systems uses 256 bit encrypted premium certificates from GeoTrust and if you wish to purchase one, please contact the sales office at (403) 536-1214. We will install any SSL certificate purchased from us and install a secure SSL logo on the checkout page of Theatre Manager.

When you buy an SSL from Arts Management Systems, information that we will require from you in order to customize the SSL to your venue are:

• company name (do not abbreviate, provide the full legal company name)
• primary contact's first and last name
• primary contact's title
• primary contact's email address
• primary contact's direct phone number
• venue's legal Address, City, full State/Province name (do not abbreviate the state or province name)
• external DNS that you set up such as tickets.myvenue.org
• the operating system that Apache is running on (OSX, Linux, or Windows)
• we will require an authorized administrator's email address to send the verification to and approve the request. This needs to be an email address you have the ability to check for the incoming emails. Please make sure that the email account has been set up and is available before you provide us the email account to use, or the approval email will not be delivered. With an invalid or non-working email account, the SSL certificate will not be processed. The options for the email address are below: (Select ONE of the following)
  • admin @ myvenue.org
  • administrator @ myvenue.org
  • hostmaster @ myvenue.org
  • root @ myvenue.org
  • webmaster @ myvenue.org
  • postmaster @ myvenue.org

We will generate the SSL based on the information provided and you will receive 3 emails:

1. An email indicating that an SSL creation request has been started.
2. An email requiring you to confirm the information at the specified email address above. Please confirm the email (by clicking on the acceptance link within that email) and accept the SSL request.
3. After you have confirmed email #2's acceptance link and the SSL has been processed by GeoTrust, the 3rd final email containing the actual SSL certificate information will be sent to you. Please note that this final email may arrive anywhere from 10 minutes to 12 hours after email #2 was accepted depending upon the next processing cycle by GeoTrust.

After we have received the SSL certificate information, we will make the SSL certificate files and put it into the Apache server for you in the 'Conf' folder and verify that it works. During this final process, we will require remote access to your Apache Server and to a Web Listener to test the SSL certificate configuration with Theatre Manager.

Open ports 80 and 443 in the firewall and point them to the static IP address of the Apache Web Server.

Once the firewall has been opened and the SSL certificate installed:

1. Open up a browser
2. Type 'https://tickets.myvenue.org'
3. It should display a web page in the browser and turn on the lock on the browser.

This page shows safari with the lock on the upper right turned on

This page shows firefox with the lock on the lower right turned on

Please check for it on your browser as appropriate.