Home | E-mail

Information Center ...


Who is ShopDakota?
ShopDakota is a group of independent Internet Service Providers located in South Dakota.

Who can be listed in ShopDakota?
Stores that accept online credit card orders securely.

Does it cost anything to be listed?
No, not as long as you are hosting your online store with one of the Internet Service Providers who sponsors ShopDakota.

How secure are these stores?
ShopDakota uses something called SSL (Secure Socket Layer) technology. SSL establishes a secure communications channel between our secure server (the server that holds our e-commerce software) and your customer’s browser. Data that is being transferred is encrypted, making it virtually impossible for hackers to intercept the information passed between the two parties.

What makes these stores secure?
ShopDakota has its own Verisign Certificate for its secure server, sales.santel.net, which is hosted by Santel Internet, one of the Internet Service Providers who sponsor ShopDakota. A certificate is a file that identifies a person or organization. Your browser uses certificates to encrypt information. You can use a certificate to check the identity of the certificate's owner.

How can I tell if a store is secure?
In Netscape Navigator 3.0 and earlier, the key icon in the lower left corner of the browser, which is normally broken, is made whole. In Netscape Navigator 4.0 and later and in Microsoft Internet Explorer, the normally open padlock icon becomes shut. Many stores do not go into secure mode until the customer is ready to enter in their credit card information. This is perfectly acceptable because viewing a page in secure mode is slower than usual because of the encryption that is going on.

What shopping cart software does ShopDakota use?
ShopDakota currently uses Miva Merchant.

Who should I contact for more information?
Simply send an email to webmaster@shopdakota.com with your questions or comments.