Several of these items may take up to 5 business days to complete. Please keep this in mind when determining your "Go Live" date.
1. Set up a Merchant Account. Contact your bank for details. Make sure you explain to them that you are going to be participating in eCommerce so that you are set up with the correct account and are charged the correct fee amounts. This can take a few days to process, depending on your institution. A merchant account is necessary if you wish to accept credit card payments.
2. Acquire a Sub-Domain Name. Contact your ISP (Internet Service Provider) for details. A sub-domain name is necessary for your SSL Certificate. The price of this varies by provider.
Make sure you already have a designated machine for your applications; your ISP will assign the IP address to that machine. *
3. Purchase a Payment Gateway and your SSL Certificate. The Semarca Corporation recommends Authorize.net for the payment gateway and Thawte for your SSL Certificate needs. These tools are necessary if you plan on accepting credit card payments over the Web. Semarca can provide you with the application for Authorize.net - there is a setup fee, a monthly fee, and a transaction fee. You will need to contact Thawte directly online - http://www.thwate.com.
When building the CSR (Certificate Signing Request) that is used to request a SSL certificate, the “common name” will be the sub-domain name chosen for the machine that the web apps will be running on. When completing the application for the SSL certificate, use “Apache” for system software type. This will allow Semarca to convert the certificate into .pem format for use with the web application.
4. Download Real VNC. This is remote control software that enables Semarca to access your system and load the Web Applications. Real VNC is free to use and can be downloaded at www.realvnc.com/download.html.
*A serover (machine) is required to run the Web Applications. It is highly recommended that your IP address for the sub-dmain name/SSL Certificate reside on a machine that is rarely used. You can more than likely use an older CPU tower that meets these requirements. If you are considering purchasing a new one, Semarca customers have had success using the MiniMac as their server for their web applications. It solves security issues and SEMARCA can set up the MiniMac for you easily. It can be connected to any type of Windows operating system.