Gerhard Fiedler wrote:
> Essentially, a certificate is something that binds a public key to an
> identity (and some other information, like an expiration date and the
> purpose of the cert). Wikipedia is your friend -- the "Public key
> certificate" article lays out the principle.=20
>=20
> It's not exactly extracting, but generating a public key that matches
> your private key. (It is easy to create a public key from a private key,
> but not the other way round.) Usually the public key is used to encrypt
> a message, which then can only be decrypted with the associated private
> key. In case you need general info about public-key cryptography,
> Wikipedia is your friend -- see "Public-key cryptography" :)
>=20
> Part of the protocol is to generate a 'secret' specific to the session
> on the fly. Wikipedia is your friend; the article about "Transport Layer
> Security" (that's what TLS means) explains the fundamentals of the
> protocol. Certificates and public-key cryptography are essential
> elements of it.

Thanks so much for your reply, Mr. Fiedler. That cleared it up.

Just a general note though: I'm sure everyone is aware of the existence of
Wikipedia and search engines and manuals and datasheets. But if everyone we=
re to
be forced to use those things alone, things like the PICLIST would have no
purpose or place. I can assure you that I, and most other people who take t=
he
time to ask questions have done at least some initial reading and searching=
.. But
I post certain questions here because I think I can get a far better and mo=
re
efficient answers than sites returned by a search engine. In addition, it t=
akes
five minutes for me to ask a question, and five minutes for someone to post=
 a
reply. Had I instead resorted to using the other methods only, it would hav=
e
taken many times the total man-hours, and with poorer results. I can assure=
 you,
one does not need constant reminders that Wikipedia is available!

- V G
--=20
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