client server certificate authentication

Hi,

Can anybody help me in authentication using client server certificate in java.

For each user will have different client certificate.
I want to identify user based on his client certificate value.

The functionality which i am trying is.

I have created selfsigned server certificate. now for each user i want to create client certificate with some client id value to connect the server. User will connect with provided client certi and will be identified from client certi.

Thanks,
Bharat

What do you hope to achieve with a client-side cert?

They are, in general, a real pain in the rear to manage.

You can nearly always get the same security simply by storing a nonce in a cookie the first time the user signs in.
Store the nonce in a suitable DBMS table.

When the user signs in a second time, check the cookie value against the DBMS records.

The idea is to give certificate to each client and will communicate through given certificate.Certificate is used to authenticate the user.

I dont have much idea about nonce but In your case How will you authenticate user first time without nonce.

If cookie is disabled or cleared then how it will work.

Thanks,
Bharat