The encryption software does not ship with SoftCart Start-Up. Once you register SoftCart Start-Up with Mercantec, it takes approximately three to five days to receive the Mercantec SoftCart Encryption Software CD. Installation procedures are included with the encryption software.
Note: Due to export restrictions, Mercantec is required to deliver the Mercantec SoftCart Encryption Software to a valid street address. A post office box is not a valid address.
Prior to installing the Mercantec SoftCart Encryption Software, you can enter and save all of your store and product information, but you will not be able to generate your store until the encryption software is installed. Once you install the software, you can use the Edit Store option to complete generating your store.
When you create your encryption key, you are really creating two keys that must match up before you can download orders from your store.
Public Key—Stored on the Internet server and used to encrypt (or scramble) all the information that is sent to the order log from your store's order form. Since this information is stored on the Internet server until you download it, it is important for all of the information to be scrambled and not able to be interpreted.
Private Key—Stored on your local machine and used to decrypt (or unscramble) the order information when you are ready to process the orders. No one, except you, should have access to the private key. You use your pass phrase to access the private key to download your orders into readable text. You determine your pass phrase when you create the encryption keys.
Your encryption key does not expire. If you need to change your keys for security reasons, use the Edit Store option to generate new keys. To prevent the loss of your key in the case of a system crash, we recommend that you save your private key on two separate diskettes. Copy the files pubring.pkr and secring.skr from the directory where you installed the client CD.