title: How to create a self-signed wildcard SSL certificate for IIS 6?
body: <p>I'm trying to create a self-signed wildcard SSL certificate for use on a number of development and test servers running IIS 6.  Following various guides has led to a couple ways of generating the certificates, but I haven't had any luck getting it to work.  The most successful ways I've had were following <a href="http://beyondintegration.blogspot.com/2008/06/self-signed-certificates-how-to-get.html" rel="noreferrer">this OpenSSL guide</a> and using makecert.exe like so:</p>
  
  <pre><code>makecert.exe -r -b 01/01/2009 -e 01/01/2042 -sr LocalMachine -ss MY -a sha1 -n CN="*.example.com" -sky exchange -pe -eku 1.3.6.1.5.5.7.3.1 -sy 12 -sp "Microsoft RSA SChannel Cryptographic Provider" wildcard.cer
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>&nbsp;</p>
  
  <p>Both of which generate certificates that IIS 6 will accept, but when I actually try to view the site I get the following error in firefox:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <h2>Data Transfer Interrupted</h2>
    
    <p>The connection to dev.example.com was interrupted while the page was loading.</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>IE just gives:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <h2>Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage</h2>
    
    <p>Most likely causes:</p>
    
    <ul>
    <li>You are not connected to the Internet.</li>
    <li>The website is encountering problems.</li>
    <li>There might be a typing error in the address.</li>
    </ul>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>This error happens whether I try to access it by domain name, machine name, localhost, local ip, or loopback ip.</p>
  
  <p>So...how can I create a self-signed wildcard cert that IIS 6 will work with? Or how can I fix the problems I'm experiencing with the ones I've already created?</p>