What is an intermediate certificate?
Intermediate certificates provide maximum browser and server coverage to ensure visitors won't receive "invalid SSL" warnings when they visit your Website.
Most browsers and servers include one or more of our trusted root certificates, either Starfield Technologies or Valicert.
The intermediate certificate bundle "chains" your SSL certificate to our trusted root certificates, letting your certificate secure connections with older browsers that might have only our original Valicert root certificate installed.
Using intermediate certificates does not cause installation, performance, or compatibility issues.
Installing Intermediate CertificatesAfter your SSL certificate is issued, you will receive an email with a link to download your signed certificate and our intermediate certificates.
How you install the certificates depends on the server software you use. In most cases, you can download and install an intermediate certificate bundle. However, for some server types you must download and install the two intermediate certificates individually. Please refer to the Installing an SSL: Server Instructions for the specific process you should follow.
All of our intermediate certificates and certificate bundles are also available from the repository.
NOTE: If you don't install the intermediate certificates with your issued SSL certificate, the trusted-chain certificate might not be established. This means that when visitors attempt to access your Website, they might receive a "Security Alert" error indicating "The security certificate was issued by a company you have not chosen to trust…" Faced with such a warning, potential customers will most likely take their business elsewhere.
