I have a new Dell Keyboard (I don't have a dell system though), it came with a Smart Card reader built-in, the exact model can be found here.

It seems to pick-up some old Smart Cards I have about the place OK, but my question is how do I get any use out of this thing?

It's not a feature I thought I would like to use, but the more I think about it the more I would like to secure a few directories on my PC, so only I have access. A few Google searches have not turned up a system that is workable for a home user, any ideas ???

Cheers

Cris.

Windows does have some sort of smart card support as it lets you authenticate to a WiFi network using a smartcard.

It all depends on what you define as a "smartcard". Some of them are pretty much just a chunk of flash in a credit card whilst others have quite a bit of RAM/ROM and can run small Java apps.

You'll have to buy or find a development kit from the smart card manufacturers which tell you how to write and compile the code that goes into the card itself. Next will be working out how to talk to the driver that handles the reader and then doing auth etc... That's the DIY route anyway. I don't know of any ready built app that does what you want unfortunately. At least none that is aimed at home users. Most of them assume that you're a big enterprise and are willing to license it per user.

Yeah. "Smartcard" defines little more than the physical interface.

ISO-7816 which is what most of these implement also defines the signalling protocol as well but thats it. Nothing at all about what you need to send or how to interpret the responses.

Dell offer OtaniumSuite. Which looks like it should fit the bill, but I can't find it for sale in the UK store. Anyone used this software? Does it need anything else (eg server) or is it standalone?

Cheers

Cris.