6 Chapter 1. Red Hat Network Overview2. A Digital Certificate is written to the client system after registration and is usedto authenticate the system during each transaction between the client and Red HatNetwork. The file is only readable by the root user on the client system.3. Red Hat signs all communications with an electronic signature using GPG. RPM canbe used to verify the authenticity of the package before it is installed.4. Red Hat encrypts all transactions using a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) connection.5. The Red Hat Quality Assurance Team tests and verifies all packages before they areadded to the Red Hat Errata list and Red Hat Network.1.7. Before You BeginBy default, all software packages necessary to access Red Hat Network are installed withRed Hat Enterprise Linux distributions. However, if you chose not to install them duringthe installation process, you must obtain the Red Hat Update Agent (up2date) and pos-sibly the Red Hat Network Registration Client (rhn_register). In Red Hat EnterpriseLinux 3 and later, registration functionality is built into the Red Hat Update Agent, whileRed Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1 users will need the Red Hat Network Registration Client.WarningThe SSL certificate packaged with older versions of the Red Hat Update Agent and theRed Hat Network Registration Client reached its end of life August 28, 2003. Usersattempting to connect using this certificate will receive SSL connection or certificate ver-ification errors. You may view and obtain the versions of these applications containingnew certificates at the RHN Client Software page. In the RHN website, click Help at thetop-right corner, Get RHN Software in the left navigation bar, and scroll down to examinethe packages and versions.To determine the versions of the client applications installed, run the rpm -q command fol-lowed by the package name. For instance, for the Red Hat Network Registration Client,type the following command:rpm -q rhn_registerIf the Red Hat Network Registration Client is installed, it will return something similarto:rhn_register-2.9.3-1The version number might differ slightly.
