Anyone making use of their HP's Fingerprint/Security System?

I have to say when I got my NX9420 I was highly doubtful I would ever find a use for this stuff and considered it just a necessary evil that is part of the laptop. Now after using the system for a couple months and a month using the fingerprint reader, I LOVE IT.

I am not sure if it's just a "oh, gee wiz this is a cool secret agent thingy" or it's really useful, but I find the FP scanner to be such a convenience I do not know how I ever got along w/o it. The software really helps manage Id's on different sites. It also might keep someone say at Starbucks or wherever from peeking over your shoulder and snagging a password to eBay. your bank or where ever. I realize it is highly unlikely that might happen but it does make me feel better for some reason. Honestly, I think it adds a Mission Impossible or 007 aspect to the computer...so it's a "gee wiz this is fun" factor.

There are other aspects of the security I have yet to investigate like drive encryption and a few other things. I am gonna tip-toe into that part over time just for s&g's if for no other reasons.

I just thought it would be interesting to read other users experiences with the feature.

I will add that one concern I still have is the reader failing. For that reason I have not set the software to allow only FP log-in to the computer or various sites. My concern of going the FP log-ins only could leave a person screw-ed if the reader fails...

Another note was upgrading the drivers & software for the reader/security system is kinda fussy and needed to be done in a specific fashion. Most important is to completely uninstall the previous driver before installing the new one. The install for the update does tell you this but I missed that part as these days it's kinda unusual for software to require one to remove the previous version. So, doing it the wrong way the first time lead to a full re-install of XP just because I had no clue how badly I foobar'd the system doing it the wrong way.

 

Hi grumpy,
I too use the fingerprint, but only because it's cool
my disk though is encrypted with the TPM as I travel a lot and don't want someone to be able to sneak into my projects and personnal documents in case my laptop is stolen (nc8430). So at least I feel a little bit more secure.

Now regarding the finger print in order to avoid someone peeking over your shoulder at Starbuck's, well the main security threat is the public WiFi itself, not your keyboard. Public WiFi are not encrypted, so anyone can sniff over your password.
My rule of thumb is to avoid access to financial institutions in public areas.

Steve

 

I love it as well.
I'm hoping Opera will implement it in their browser as well.

 

hi ya,

cool that other folks find it just a fun tool too.

I am the same way about access to financial stuff from a public place. Worst I access on occasion is PayPal and well, if anyone wants to try to fiddle with that fine as it is not connected to anything but a credit card. No checking access. My main thing about someone peeking is it can be close quarters in a public place and heck some people cannot help themselves and see if they can figure it out by watching. It would be so ironic to have all sorts of encryption in place only to have someone visually watch you punch out the keys. If you are like me, even though you can touch type you hunt-n-peck your passwords because it gets to be a pain to retype until it works...

Nice thing is most of the wifi spots I use are pay for access and they give you an encrypted connection since ya pay. but also remember that the SSL stuff is also encrypted so it's not as wide open a hole as it could be w/o SSL.

The whole encryption thing is just an never ending issue...lord knows how fast someone will be able to crack a pwd when we get systems running dual quadcore cpu's...

Henchman:

The TPM/Fingerprint system should independent of the browser. I use it in Mozilla/FF/IE so Iw ould assume it works with Opera too. Especially since Opera is based on the IE core. What part is not working for ya? I did have to update to the latest drives to have the system recognize more logins...maybe that is why it's not working in Opera for you?

 

Well, I'm on the oposite side. Not using the FP reader at all, in fact even disabled it in the device manager as I found it eating up energy (as it's scanning in intervals). For one, I don't need the added security. All what's truly confidential (like ebanking aso.), I wouldn't do on my laptop anyway. I realy thought it'd be a nice thing for not having to enter the password upon win login but that was kinda pointless as having to wait for the FP software to be ready and then for it to process the scan takes about 3 times as long as simply entering the password does. Don't know if that's only the case with the NC6400? But it certainly blew away the convenience factor for me.
But then, having or not having a FP wasn't a dealbreaker for me, always regarded these things as gimmicks rather than tools anyway.

Er ... no? Don't think it is. At least not since version 4 (that's when they released a new core).

 

pop5k:

really, Opera is now on their own core system? that's GREAT to know...and it was why I never went back to Opera because when I first looked at it I thought it was nice but it was just IE with a different wrapper. Now I am thinking I understand why folsk are moving toward it more and more...THANKS!!

About the FP reader on my NX9420 and speed...no delay at all on XP start or anything. My entire boot time is around 30-40 secs max. and that includes login time. SO maybe there is something wonky with your drivers?

I really only use the FP reader for the ease of use and really don't consider it a security thing. It really is lots faster then doing a regular login either for XP or whatever site I am on. I do understand your point about power though. To be honest I never thought of that issue. I already have undeeded devices (express card, modem and wired NIC) disabled as I never will use any of them except for the NIC. I might in an emergency need to hard wire to a network or device but can enable that is a few secs.

I will look at the power useage difference with the reader enabled and w/o...it make make a big difference. Thanks for that idea too!

 

Hmm. Guess I gotta look into the FP thing again then, find out how it works for other NC6400 users. The (meaning: all) drivers on my laptop are utd. but it could be that I had the login settings wrong in the credentials manager / security suite / whatever the HP security software is called again. All I know is it'd boot to the login screen, then I'd have to wait some 25-30 sec till a little bubble told me that the system's ready to check my fingerprint, then it'd take another 10 sec from a successful read to start loading the desktop. Doing all that with the normal password entering (through classic win2k login) takes no 10 seconds.

As for the power, on the NC6400 it seemed quite a hungry component. Don't remember the exact number but I think turning it off freed some 10 to 15 minutes on battery.



Opera is realy good by now. Been running it since 8.5 (it's at 9.1 now) when I switched over from Firefox. It's not open source and it doesn't support FF-like extensions, but then all (or like 95% of the functions that I had added to FF via extensions are already built in into Opera (and others can be added through widgets). It's handling is somewhat different so it takes a short time to adjust. I'd say FF is a bit more intuitive. But Opera comes with some features I just wouldn't want to miss no more (like password wand, personal bar, notes, custom search fields ...).

 

I have the latest drivers. But it's not storing and auto accessing passwords.

 

Pop5k:

Seriously thanks for the tip about Opera. I will give it a spin this weekend. I never got used to the FF interface. I think I am too ingrained into IE. I am not all that pleased with IE7 either. Seems like MS never really finished the IE7 user interface...it's kinda fugly. So again thanks a bunch!

Henchman:

I kinda screwed up my FP reader the first time I upgraded the drivers. The reader no longer would consistently read FP scans or even allow me to complete the setup the FP scans. That could be similar to your issue? Maybe? I dunno?

The problem was I did not follow the darn directions. The driver update told me I needed to uninstall the old driver first and I mis-read that as needing to update the other related components and failed to remember to uninstall the old FP reader drivers.

My system was here just a week so my solution was to re-install XP then do the update all over again. I did read some threads over on the HP support board about people having issues with the FP reader driver update which is what lead me to re-read the install instructions on the driver page...d'oh!! The second time around I also updated all the other related software/drivers before taking care of the FP reader update.

Then again the XP re-install was no picinic either as there were over 100 (somewhere around 112) updates for XP that had to be installed...ICK!

It sure seems to be sort of a high-strung little device for sure...but maybe we can get it working for ya given enough WAG to figure it out...a guy has to have a hobby right? Yours can be giving HP "the finger" for a while?

 

The FP reader works fine for logins and on IE. It even works with WSFTP.

But no luck with Opera.
Is there something special that needs to be done?