STEP 1a & 2a: USB EXTERNAL CAC READERS |
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Click the picture to find online businesses selling the CAC reader you desire
ONCE YOU'VE DECIDED WHICH READER YOU WANT TO PURCHASE OR DOWNLOADED THE DRIVER, PROCEED TO STEP 3
A little bit of information / history: Not all CAC readers are created equal. This page shows 27 different CAC readers available for sale. You will only see readers that I have tested and will recommend to you on this page (Except for the Non-Supported (old) readers section).
CAC Reader Manufacturers (listed alphabetically):
ACR | ActivIdentity | Cherry | GemPlus/Gemalto | HID | IOGear | Litronic | Manhattan | NetSign | Omnikey | Schlumberger | SCR | Stanley Global | Unotron | Non-Supported (OLD) readers
Mac Friendly (Alternate fix needed for some Mac's) Mac driver (most likely NOT needed) NOT Tiger (10.4.11) Note: This model is sold at your local MCX / NEX (used to be sold at PX / BX) and works with all versions of Windows To find the lowest price from random vendors, click here (or image above) to search via Google Products
SCR331 CAC reader use driver located here sometimes you will need this driver, or this driver(1.40) Mac Friendly If this reader does not initially work on your Windows 7, Vista or Mac computer you may want to update the firmware NOTE: We're seeing more and more Mac users having problems with this old reader. If you are looking at purchasing one, and have a Mac, I'd consider a different SCR model reader. To find the lowest price from random vendors, click here (or image above) to search via Google Products
SCR-3500 Smart fold mini USB Smart Card Reader Mac Friendly To find the lowest price from random vendors, click here (or image above) to search via Google Products
SDI010 / SDI011 Contactless Smart Card Reader driver NOTE: I was not able to figure out how to make the contactless part work, just the regular CAC slot Mac friendly after this update for Leopard and Snow Leopard (NOT Lion (10.7.x), or Tiger(10.4.11) To find the lowest price from random vendors, click here (or image above) to search via Google Products
SCR-301 CAC Reader NOT Mac compatible
IOGEAR model GSR202 Driver (GSR201Driver) Mac Friendly (Except for Tiger(10.4.11))
Note: This model is sold at the AAFES PX & BX
To find the lowest price from random vendors, click here (or image above) to search via Google Products
Please note, "a few" Windows 7 (64 bit home premium & Ultimate) users are having
problems with this reader not staying in device manager when the computer is
restarted.
Stanley Global Model SGT111 32bitDriver 64bitDriver Mac friendly after this update for Leopard and Snow Leopard, (NOT Lion, or Tiger) To find the lowest price from random vendors, click here (or image above) to search via Google Products
Stanley Global Model SGT114 32bitDriver 64bitDriver Mac friendly after this update for Leopard (NOT Snow Leopard (above 10.6.4), Lion, or Tiger) More information regarding this CAC & multi memory SIM Card Reader To find the lowest price from random vendors, click here (or image above) to search via Google Products
Stanley Global Model SGT117 Mac friendly after this update for Leopard and Snow Leopard (NOT Lion, or Tiger) More information regarding this CAC Reader To find the lowest price from random vendors, click here (or image above) to search via Google Products
Stanley Global Model SGT118 Mac friendly after this update for Leopard (NOT Snow Leopard (above 10.6.4), Lion, or Tiger) More information regarding this USB CAC Reader (NOT Bluetooth) To find the lowest price from random vendors, click here (or image above) to search via Google Products
Stanley Global Model SGT119 Mac friendly after this update for Leopard (NOT Snow Leopard (above 10.6.4), Lion, or Tiger) More information regarding this USB CAC Reader (NOT Bluetooth) To find the lowest price from random vendors, click here (or image above) to search via Google Products
Stanley Global Model SGT121 Mac friendly after this update for Leopard (NOT Snow Leopard (above 10.6.4), Lion, or Tiger) More information regarding this CAC Reader To find the lowest price from random vendors, click here (or image above) to search via Google Products
Stanley Global Model SGT122 May need to try twice to get it to read the Oberthur ID One 128 v5.5 Dual CAC May be Mac friendly after this update for Leopard and Snow Leopard 10.6.4 (NOT 10.6.5 - .8, Lion, or Tiger) This reader has 3 possible fixes to work with Windows 7: 1. Follow guidance in this PDF 2. Download patch from Microsoft 3. Download Realtek driver More information regarding this CAC Reader To find the lowest price from random vendors, click here (or image above) to search via Google Products
HID / Omnikey / ActivIdentity Readers Omnikey 3021 Smart Card Reader Mac friendly after this update (Select Mac OS X from the Operating System dropdown) To find the lowest price from random vendors, click here (or image above) to search via Google Products
Omnikey 3121 Smart Card Reader Mac friendly after this update To find the lowest price from random vendors, click here (or image above) to search via Google Products
ActivCard / ActivIdentity V3 Smart Card reader Mac compatibility unknown The manufacturer does not support this reader any more To find the lowest price from random vendors, click here (or image above) to search via Google Products
ActivCard V2 Smart Card reader driver (I don't have one of these to test with) According to ActivIdentity, this driver "should" work for Windows 7. NOT Mac friendly (2 Navy personnel have tweaked the firmware update for an SCR-331 and found an old XP computer to update the firmware from). More will be posted once I get the specifics, this resulted in the ability to use this reader on a Mac.
Advanced Card Systems Readers
ACR3801 Smart Card Reader Mac friendly after this update Sold by: SCB Solutions for $10.99 & TXSystems for $37.00
ACR38U-TFC Pocket Mate Smart Card Reader Information from manufacturer (including drivers) Mac friendly (except when using Firefox) Sold only by: SCB Solutions for $19.75
GemPlus Reader
GemPlus USB-SW Smart Card Reader 32bitDriver 64bitDriver Tiger & Panther Mac Friendly with driver update (Leopard and Snow Leopard "supposedly" have native support built in. I do not have one to test with Lion). However, one Soldier could not get it to work. He ended up purchasing an SCR-331 To find the lowest price from random vendors, click here (or image above) to search via Google Products
GemPC Twin USB Smart Card Reader drivers (I don't have one of these to test with)
Cherry Reader
Cherry ST-1044 USB CAC reader driver (Windows) Instructions MAC friendly after this update (Leopard 10.5.x with Intel chip) MAC friendly after this update (Snow Leopard 10.6.x) Lion (10.7.x) needed no updates Tiger (10.4.11) needed no updates To find the lowest price from random vendors, click here (or image above) to search via Google Products
Manhattan Reader
Manhattan 172844 USB CAC reader driver (XP, Vista 32, Vista 64, Windows 7) Instructions To find the lowest price from random vendors, click here (or image above) to search via Google Products NOT Mac friendly
Unotron Reader
Unotron SpillSeal SAC2 - Washable Smart Card Reader (drivers) (I don't have one of these to test with) To find the lowest price from random vendors, click here (or image above) to search via Google Products Their website shows NO Mac compatibility
The manufacturers have abandoned support for these readers. Use at your own risk!!
The CAC readers below "might" work with Windows XP but NOT Windows 7, Vista, or Mac. This is partly because they will not read the PIV II CACs (Gemalto TOP DL GX4 144 & Oberthur ID One 128 v5.5 Dual) and they [the manufacturers] do not want to invest in a firmware update.
The simplest solution is for you is to invest in a more modern CAC reader above this section
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Cherry
Cherry ST-1000U USB Smart Card Reader NOT Mac friendly
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Gemalto
GemPC 430 driver support for Windows XP and older NOT Mac friendly (according to manufacturer website)
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Litronic / Netsign 215 USB CAC reader driver (alternate driver) (I don't have one of these to test with) NOT Mac friendly (according to manufacturer website)
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The Schlumberger CAC reader below is here only for driver support. I do not recommend you purchase this CAC reader unless you are not planning on using a computer newer than Windows XP. This means it won't work on Vista or Windows 7. It is an old reader with NO support from the vendor.
Schlumberger ReflexV2 Driver (installation instructions on CAC drivers page) Alternate installation file (installation instructions are in the html file inside the zipped file) NOT Mac friendly
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SCM Microsystems
SCR-301 USB CAC reader (driver) (I don't have one of these to test with) According to the SCMMicro website driver download page, it will not work on anything newer than XP NOT Mac compatible
SCR-111 Serial CAC reader Due to the fact that most computers do not have serial ports or use a PS2 keyboard, this reader is useless for modern computers. The manufacturer has also not provided any updates to be able to read the PIV II CACs or use with Vista or Windows 7. This will also leave out all Macs.
SCB Solutions sells CAC readers and has a full time person to provide support to their customers
If you live in the UK, you can purchase CAC readers from SmartCardFocus.com
Alternate driver download locations:
OTHER TYPES OF READERS TO CONSIDER
USB keyboards with built-in CAC reader
Laptop CAC reader (PCMCIA or ExpressCard) |
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Last Update or Review: Thursday, 12 January 2012 03:20 hrs
The following domain
names all resolve to the same website: ChiefsCACSite.com,
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MilitaryCAC.us, MilitaryCAC.org, MilitaryCAC.net, & MilitaryCAC.mobi
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