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Fingerprint reader

MuDelta
Resolved

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Posted March 27, 2012 at 5:03PM

I am thinking about buying one of these for home use as password master key. Any Advice? I am running XP

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rawprawn

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Posted March 27, 2012 at 5:14PM

I bought a fingerprint protected pen drive, and found it extremely difficult to get in. It had a password alternative, and I eventually just used that. There may be better ones available, but I was not impressed.

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MuDelta

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Posted March 27, 2012 at 6:57PM

Hi rawprawn

Was this recently or some time ago? The effluxion of time breeds improvement (sometimes!!).

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bugle

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Posted March 27, 2012 at 7:18PM

My Viao has fingerprint recognition, but it don't like my fingers. Back to passwords for me.

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bugle

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Posted March 27, 2012 at 7:18PM

My Viao has fingerprint recognition, but it don't like my fingers. Back to passwords for me.

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rawprawn

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Posted March 27, 2012 at 7:33PM

MuDelta, about 6 to 9 months ago, sometimes I had to try to get it to accept my prite 8 or 9 times before it would let me in. (Sounds a bit like bugle.)

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robinofloxley

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Posted March 27, 2012 at 8:30PM

If you fit special, custom items, when they go wrong you have to return to a specialist repair company. Like a modern car's security systems. A new set of keys will be £200-300 these days.

Or if you can just disconnect, reboot with a general purpose repair disc, then they aren't much cop in the first place.

Setting a BIOS password on laptops can be reasonably secure but it also makes life difficult if you are the genuine user.

Desktp BIOS passwords and Windows passwords are easily circumvented. And general apps with Password protection (Word, Excel, zip files, last I heard)

Encrypting part of your disc can be useful. Google Truecrypt and Axcrypt. But again, it's uncrackable if you forget the password.

Always backup critical files/systems so it doesn't matter if you are burgled or the house burns down.

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bjh

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Posted March 28, 2012 at 9:10AM

I have one on my work laptop (Lenovo), and it works pretty much 100%. It does grumble when I have hot, sweaty, puffy hands, like when I've been carrying said laptop about in the hot sun. It is fast to use, and more difficult to forget your fingers than a password.

I have been warned by others that the fingerprint reading isn't all that fussy on some machines, and that pretty much anyones finger will do. I haven't tried, but it may be the case that an accurate fingerprint reader often fails to work, while a read-anything reader will always work.

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MuDelta

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Posted March 30, 2012 at 3:27PM

Thanks all. I conclude the verdict to be not yet.

D

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