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To fingerprint, or not to fingerprint??

Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2008 8:20 am
by CanadianNorth
Many laptops these days come with fingerprint readers. Having researched a few dells, I read many complaints about how their fingerprint reader was junk.

How are people's experiences with the Lenovo fingerprint readers?

i.e..... is it worth it? or are you better off avoiding it?


thanks!

Re: To fingerprint, or not to fingerprint??

Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2008 8:40 am
by mgo
CanadianNorth wrote:Many laptops these days come with fingerprint readers. Having researched a few dells, I read many complaints about how their fingerprint reader was junk.

How are people's experiences with the Lenovo fingerprint readers?

i.e..... is it worth it? or are you better off avoiding it?


thanks!
The fingerprint reader is a pretty nice convenience, and you do get reasonable security using a poweron password and hard drive password which can be registered on the fingerprint chip.

The reader on my T43p ThinkPad was a one swipe success about 60% of the time. My more recent T60 reader appears to swipe correctly around 95% of the time.

Often, a 2nd finger swipe does the job if the first one fails to read. Then, when all else fails, one can simply type in the passwords on the keyboard.

Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2008 9:11 am
by Trekk69
I enjoy it. I use it for login only and I find it quick and easy!

Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2008 6:16 pm
by iamdmc
I have an X61s without the fingerprint reader

A friend has an X61s with the fingerprint reader

I dislike the position of the X61s fingerprint reader, since I rest my right hand on that position of the palm rest. The X60s had it positioned in the middle of the palm rest away from where I rest my hand.

The friend has some problems with the fingerprint reader. He likes it, but since I have most of my passwords saved in Firefox and otherwise I don't want people cutting off my finger to log me in (just kidding). I personally opt out of the fingerprint reader. It's not reliable enough and it's positioned poorly.

That being said, I hope you make the best choice for you.

Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2008 6:39 pm
by blackomegax
on my T61 i had it set up to where it prompted in the BIOS, and once you verify there it takes that verification right up into windows and logs you in without another swipe.

After i got use to that, i decided to stop using the reader entirely for a bit.

Didn't make much difference at all, it's just a different way of authenticating, and in the end it's MUCH more secure.

fingerprint + long password, vs short and quick password.