Client/root Certificate confusion

I need to use certificates in an VB.NET application that I wrote that submits data in a wrapped XML to an iPlanet server. The server admin guys now want to enable 2-way SSL and asked me to submit client certificates to them.

I do not have much idea about certificates; I just know that a client certificate has to be signed by a root certificate. I have the root certificate. My Qn is - how do I get a client certificate from the root certificate (if such a thing can be done).

I need to implement it in my app to which is another matter altogether. For now, I need to tell the server team I have a client cert that can be authenticated against the root cert.

Please help!

And btw, how do you know if a certificate is a root cert or a client one just by looking at it?

PS - Any article that explians this concept would be helpful.

Maybe this will help.

This may be of interest as well.

thankx but

The first link says -



So Does this mean that only my server team (where the server I need to connect to) can issue me the cert? Would seem silly then coz they asked me to provide the client cert signed by the root server certificate in the first place. How do I do this?