Our development of OnScene Xplorer 4.0 is going very well. So it is time to get a code signing cert (certificate) so users would not have to deal with that annoying popup in Windows asking if you trust to run the app.

Getting a cert is pretty straight forward: fill out a form, pay some money, provide some documentation to prove you are who you say you are, and they give you the cert. Simple, right?

We provided some docs from the Commonwealth of PA which shows our name and address. For the record, our registered name is “Iron Compass Map Company.” The cert authorities also want some additional documentation, for example, a utility bill. So we provided them with a bill from our internet service provider. The reply? We’re sorry, but this doesn’t have the full company name. You see, our ISP seems to only have 18 characters in the billing name, so our bill has “IRON COMPASS MAP C.”

We sent them a vehicle registration from the state, which has our full name, but that didn’t count. OK, so legal documents or records from our state government do not count. I guess they don’t trust the government. Then we got another reply:

Dear Customer,

Thank you for writing us.   Could you please confirm us shall we use the company name as ironcompass.com which is listing in zoominfo.com or do you wish to have Iron Compass Map Company.

Awaiting for your response !!

The lesson? Besides their English being a little suspect, they trust ZoomInfo.com more than the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

OK, so we start looking at the bills from our vendors and guess what? All of our vendors either use some variation of our name (Iron Compass Map Co., Iron Compass Map, etc), or they use our mailing PO Box. Oh yes, cert company needs to have the registered address on the bill. The PO Box doesn’t count. Yes, as you would assume, we have our mail send to our PO Box. See, that is why we have a PO Box. Crazy, right? So, they wait.

Please provide us the comcast bill document document with the full company name Iron Compass Map Company, so that we will proceed further 

Wait a minute! We have a virtual phone system that bills annually…maybe they have our full name. Hey, they do. But it has our PO Box and not the registered address. But, in the last few emails, it seems like they are looking at the name separate from the address. Perhaps that will do? OK, Log in…bill history (Feb 2019), print, and email..

I think we have worn them down because they accepted the name with the PO Box address and are moving to the final item. Just thinking, if we were a fake company, wouldn’t we just fake some utility bills too? Only a legitimate company would do this whole back and forth to get a cert. Right?

After all this back and forth, they only need to verify our phone number by giving us a call and provide a code, which we then type into a web form.

Voila! Congratulation IRON COMPASS MAP C…… Iron Compass Map Co…..Iron Compass Map Company, you now have a code signing certificate. Yay!