The question is: what did I learn from this ? Will I do the same thing if a similar
problem happens tomorrow ? Or, did I do the right thing...

I am supposed to trust other co-workers and focus on my area to see if I had made
a mistake....

In this case, I had done everything right and the problem was created by somebody else..

On other days, I am sure that I myself did something to create a problem.

I had a nagging doubt that the files were not copied properly
But I chose to pursue other (equally important) leads
I spent 4 fruitless hours before I realized that the files were
FTPed in ascii mode !! They are binary files .

The IT support guy copied the files for me and when I started
testing this damn thing would not work ....

This involved copying the certificate files ..

it has been a typical day. Would I have done right in the morning what I
know know ?

I was trying to setup for SSL testing ....