arnoldob
it is a bit of a pain to fussy with twice a year. Any other suggestion for a cheap widely accepted cert?
There is the cacert possibility of a 2 year certificate for free, but you have to physically meet someone in your area who is an authorised cacert approver (I forget their exact terminology).
It's their way of establishing trust "on the cheap" ie 2 humans doing a handshake. Check the cacert website for further details.
There are many cheap certificate providers now, do a google search or search these forums as some names have been mentioned a few times. I think someone like godaddy (AU$50 per year for 2 yrs or longer for a single domain) is cheap but reliable. The same cannot necessarily be said for other unknown or little known certificate providers, so it's really a trade off between reliability of security and cost. Your organisation's requirements may call for a much more expensive brand of certificate or a higher spec'd godaddy certificate ie the Premium offerings.