5
Configuring HID Cards
Topics
HID Encoding
HID Decoding
HID cards can be configured to allow users to identify themselves at control terminals in the same way as when using a magnetic stripe or proximity card.
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HID Encoding
HID cards can be used to allow users to identify themselves at the PageCounter terminal just as though they were using a magnetic stripe or other supported proximity card. To configure HID cards to function with the PageCounter terminal, you must identify how your HID cards are encoded with your facility and ID codes and how that information relates to the user PIN data in Equitrac Office and Express. You can then configure the Equitrac server to interpret the data it receives and use it to identify your users.
To configure the PageCounter terminal to accurately read HID cards, you require the following:
1
2
3
4
Ensure Equitrac Office or Express 5.7 is running.
Ensure you are still running the correct PageCounter control terminal firmware version. Firmware versions prior to 1.1.47 do not support the HID decoding described in this document.
Ensure that the type of HID proximity card you are using is supported. See
Supported HID Card Types
on page
171 for details.
Write down the following HID card encoding information:
• Facility code Start – the position in the raw bitstream (0 based, left to right, inclusive) where the Facility code begins.
• Facility code End – the position in the raw bitstream (0 based, left to right, inclusive) where the facility code ends.
• Facility code Width – the number of expected decimal digits representing the facility code from among the string of numbers returned by the PageCounter.
• ID code Start – the position in the raw bitstream (0 based, left to right, inclusive) where the ID code begins.
• ID code End – the position in the raw bitstream (0 based, left to right, inclusive) where the ID code ends.
• ID code Width – the number of expected decimal digits representing the ID from among the string of numbers returned by the PageCounter.
NOTE: The terminal returns a single value comprising of both the facility code (if used) and ID
(facility + ID).
If you do not know the encoding used on your HID proximity cards, this document provides information to help you
discover your card encoding. See
Determining HID Card Encoding
on page 174. However, if you are not able to
discover your card encoding using the method provided, contact your HID vendor for assistance.
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Supported HID Card Types
The following is a list of supported HID card formats. The illustrations shown for each card is from HID’s product data sheets. However, refer to the HID Web site in case of discrepancy.
RFID Carrier frequency
The RF signal used to exchange information between the powered card reader and the passive card can operate at many different frequencies and ranges (125 KHz carrier frequency, or Mifare and Legic standard using a 13.56 MHz carrier frequency).
HID offers a variety of products using different carrier frequencies and standards (HID IClass cards, HID Corporate
1000, HID Mifare, and others). However, since the control terminals have HID readers using a 125KHz carrier frequency, only certain card formats can be read by the control terminal.
Card Numbering and Labeling
All cards have the following numbering system printed on them for distribution purposes:
Card ID Number: 12345
Sales Order Number: YYYYYYYY-YY
Format: 12345 YYYYYYYY-YY
These numbers do not directly relate to the data stored on them. Some organizations may choose to deploy cards with labels that clearly display the Facility and ID codes stored on the card. Other may choose to obfuscate the data for security reasons and omit labels completely, or label the cards with a randomly generated serial number. For this reason, it is not always possible to infer the facility or ID codes from card labels, nor can you infer the type of encoding used on the cards based on the numbers printed on the exterior. See
Determining HID Card Encoding
on page 174 for
more details.
MicroProx Tag
RF-programmable, 125 kHz, customer-specified numbers.
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ISOProx II
RF-programmable, 125 kHz, customer-specified ID numbers, locations marked for horizontal and vertical slot punch.
DuoProx II
RF-programmable, 125 kHz, customer-specified ID numbers, locations marked for horizontal and vertical slot punch.
Smart ISOProx II
RF-programmable 125kHz, customer-specified ID numbers, location marked for vertical slot punch.
Smart DuoProx II
RF-programmable 125kHz, customer-specified ID numbers, location marked for vertical slot punch.
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ProxKey II
RF-programmable, 125 kHz, charcoal gray, customer-specified ID Numbers.
Chapter 5: Configuring HID Cards
ProxCard
®
II
RF-programmable, 125 kHz, HID artwork, customer-specified ID numbers, vertical slot punch.
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Determining HID Card Encoding
HID uses a proprietary encoding format to encode data (ID or facility code and ID) on proximity cards. Generally, the encoding types used are either 26 or 37-bits, or in the case of some cards, 35-bits.
Encoding Types
The encoding is comprised of a beginning and end parity bit. Between these parity bits is a string of binary digits. The first part—on the left—can be the facility code if your site uses one. The second part (possibly the entire string if there is no facility code) of the binary string—on the right—is the encoded ID code.
26-bit encoding
37-bit encoding with Facility code and ID code
37-bit encoding with ID code only
Although it is possible to decipher the type of encoding used via the Card Swipe Wizard, it is best to contact your HID vendor to determine the encoding type used on your proximity cards.
The embedded HID card reader in the control terminal always returns 16 octal digits, which when converted to binary equals 48 digits. The HID card reader zero-pads the string returned from the card to equal 48 binary digits, regardless of the proprietary encoding used on the card. Therefore, knowing the type of encoding used on your card helps, since the actual digits returned from the card always appear at the end of the data string. The trick then is to decipher where the facility code (if used) and ID code begin and end within the binary data string.
To determine card encoding, you require the following:
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• The ability to convert between different numeric notations (octal, binary, and decimal). You can use the calculator application available in most versions of Windows for this. However, you need to change the view to Scientific. See the help file within the calculator application for detailed instructions.
• A control terminal with an internal HID proximity card reader.
• One or more sample HID Proximity cards. See
Supported HID Card Types
on page 171 for supported card
formats.
• The codes expected to be returned by the sample proximity cards. Contact your security system administrator or
HID vendor for assistance.
Determining Code Start and Stop Positions – Known Codes
If you have a sample card and you know the codes you expect to see returned from it, you can follow the procedure below to determine where the codes begin and end in the binary data string returned from the HID card reader.
1
To see the full value of the data string returned by the HID card reader, you must change the card swipe PIN settings: a b
In System Manager, go to Configuration > Security and authentication > User authentication to open the
User authentication
dialog box.
Change the from and to positions in the Card setup area to read:
Use data from position 1 to 50 as the primary PIN
.
2
3
4
Configure your HID embedded control terminal to use a static IP. Change the server IP address setting to point to the IP address of the system on which you run the Card Swipe Wizard.
Temporarily disable HID decoding on the terminal to examine the raw data only. See
Disabling and Enabling HID
Decoding on the PageCounter Terminal
on page 181.
If you plan to run the Card Swipe Wizard on the server running DCE, stop the EQ DCE Service on the server:
WARNING: The Card Swipe Wizard can only talk to one terminal at a time. If there are multiple terminals pointing to
the system running the Card Swipe Wizard, you need to unplug all but the one you have configured in step 2 above.
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5
On an administrative workstation, browse to the Tools folder within the directory where Equitrac Office or
Express is installed (for example, Programs Files\Equitrac\Office or Express\Tools) and run the
CardSwipeWizard.exe
file to launch the Card Swipe Wizard.
6
7
8
9
Select PageCounter device as the Card swipe unit.
Enter the Windows network name of the computer that hosts the accounting server and click Next.
Power on the PageCounter terminal configured in step 2 and wait for it to connect to the system running the Card
Swipe Wizard.
Take your sample card (for example, with the number 87343 11082200-1 printed on the card) and swipe it at the terminal. The Card Swipe Wizard displays the extracted data string from the sample card in the Primary PIN field.
The following table shows the number printed on the card as well as the expected values that you know should be returned by the HID card reader.
Number Printed on the
Card
87343 11082200-1
Expected Facility Code to be returned (in decimal)
109
Expected ID Code to be returned (in decimal)
86343
CAUTION: The number printed on the card may not be the facility code or ID code.
Since HID decoding is disabled on the terminal, the HID card reader in the PageCounter terminal return the entire data string from the card in octal format.
Number Printed on the Card
87343 11082200-1
Value returned (octal)
0000201550521216
10
Convert the extracted octal string to its binary value using the Microsoft Windows Calculator:
Value returned (octal)
0000201550521216
Value returned (binary)
000000000000010000001101101000101010001010001110
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NOTE: It is important to keep the leading digits in the stream. The Windows Calculator usually strips off leading
zeros. To adjust your output, you have to ensure there is a group of three binary digits for each octal digit in the raw data stream. You should have a total of 48 binary digits.
You can now analyze the resulting sets of the binary sequence found from one of your samples. Convert the expected codes to be returned from the wizard from decimal to binary
:
Expected Facility Code
(in decimal)
109
Expected Facility Code
(in binary)
1101101
Expected ID code
(in decimal)
86343
Expected ID code
(in binary)
10101000101000111
11
Open the HIDEncoding-Ruler.txt file.
12
Paste the binary string you converted from the Card Swipe Wizard into Notepad above the makeshift ruler. Be sure to add enough leading zeros to make the string equal 48 digits: a
If you use a facility code, click Edit > Find and input the expected binary string representing the facility code to have Notepad find the digits for you: b
Using the ruler, you can see that in the example above that the facility code is located from digit 20 to digit 26 inclusive.
Click Edit > Find again and input the expected binary string representing the ID code to have Notepad find the string for you:
Using the ruler, you can see from the example above that the ID code is located from digit 30 to digit 46 inclusive.
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NOTE: It is possible that the starting bit might actually begin one or more digits earlier if there are leading zeros.
Therefore it is a good idea to test the card after this procedure to ensure that you have recorded the correct start and end positions. See
HID Decoding
on page 182.
13
Record the start and end locations for the facility code (if used) and ID code to use when setting up Equitrac Office or Express.
14
Close the Card Swipe Wizard.
15
If required, restart EQ DCE Service on the DCE server.
16
Enable HID decoding on the PageCounter terminal.
NOTE: If you need to use the Card Swipe Wizard to read HID cards and setup Equitrac PINs, you need to temporarily
enable local caching on the PageCounters, then ensure the PageCounter that you are using the Card Swipe Wizard on connects to DCE. Finally, disable the local caching setting on the PageCounters. The PageCounter can be used with HID cards. See
Local Caching
on page 127 for instructions to enable and disable local caching on all
PageCounters.
Determining Code Start and Stop Positions – Unknown Codes
If you have sample cards but do not know the codes you expect to see returned from them, you can follow the procedure below to determine the codes and where they begin and end in the binary data string returned from the
HID card reader.
1
To see the full value of the data string returned by the HID card reader, you must change the card swipe PIN settings: a b
In System Manager, go to Configuration > Security and authentication > User authentication to open the
User authentication
dialog box.
Change the from and to positions in the Card setup area to read:
Use data from position 1 to 50 as the primary PIN
.
2
3
Configure your HID embedded PageCounter control terminal to use a static IP. Change the server IP address setting to point to the IP address of the system on which you run the Card Swipe Wizard.
Disable HID decoding on the PageCounter terminal. See
Disabling and Enabling HID Decoding on the
PageCounter Terminal
on page 181.
If you plan to run the Card Swipe Wizard on the server running DCE, stop the EQ DCE Service on the server:
NOTE: The Card Swipe Wizard can only talk to one PageCounter terminal at a time. If there are multiple terminals
pointing to the system running the Card Swipe Wizard, you need to unplug all but the one configured in step 2.
4
5
On an administrative workstation, browse to the Tools folder within the directory where Equitrac Office or
Express was installed (the default installation folder location is Programs Files\Equitrac\Office or Express\Tools) and run the CardSwipeWizard.exe file to launch the Card Swipe Wizard.
In the wizard’s first dialog box, select PageCounter device as the Card swipe unit.
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6
7
8
Enter the Windows network name of the computer that hosts the accounting server and click Next.
Power on the PageCounter terminal configured in step 2 and wait for it to connect to the system running the Card
Swipe Wizard.
Take a sample of five or more cards (for example, with the format 87343 11082200-1 printed on the cards) and swipe them at the terminal. The Card Swipe Wizard displays the extracted data strings in the Primary PIN fields.
Number printed on Card
87343 11082200-1
87344 11082200-1
87345 11082200-1
87346 11082200-1
87347 11082200-1
Value returned from Card Swipe Wizard (octal)
0000201550521216
0000201550521220
0000201550521223
0000201550521225
0000201550521226
NOTE: For a more precise determination, it is best to use a large number of cards. However, five to seven cards
should suffice for this procedure.
9
Since HID decoding is disabled on the terminal, the HID card reader in the PageCounter terminal returns the entire data string from the card in octal format.
Convert each octal number to its binary value:
Value returned (octal)
0000201550521216
0000201550521220
0000201550521223
0000201550521225
0000201550521226
Value returned (binary)
000000000000010000001101101000101010001010001110
000000000000010000001101101000101010001010010000
000000000000010000001101101000101010001010010011
000000000000010000001101101000101010001010010101
000000000000010000001101101000101010001010010110
NOTE: It is important to keep the leading digits in the stream. The MS Calculator usually strips off leading zeros. To
adjust your output, you have to ensure there is a group of three binary digits for each octal digit in the raw data stream. You should have a 48 digit binary string for each card.
You can now analyze the resulting sets of the binary sequence found from your samples.
10
Open the HIDEncoding-Ruler.txt file.
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11
Now paste each of the binary strings you converted from the Card Swipe Wizard into Notepad above the makeshift ruler. Be sure to add enough leading zeros to make each string equal 48 digits and then look for patterns:
Try to match the returned binary strings against the card encoding type formats to see if your cards seem to match any of them. If they do, use the format to determine the start and end positions of the facility (if used) and ID codes. If they do not, as in the case above, you need to make some assumptions as follows:
• We know that if there is a facility code, it appears first (on the left) and that the ID code appears on the right.
• The facility code should be the same for all cards. Therefore if there is a set of digits on the left that are identical in all strings, then you can assume that it is the facility code. In the example given above, the pattern appears from digit 20 to 26.
• You can assume that the last binary digit in the string is a parity digit and disregard it. This assumption is based on what we know to be true about HID encoding types.
• If you contacted your HID vendor, hopefully they gave you the card encoding type and the card ID range. If you know the card ID range, you can use the information to help determine where the ID code starts and ends.
For example, if you know that the cards deployed at your site are between 75,000 and 200,000 you can determine that the largest card ID (200,000) in binary would require 18 digits (110000110101000000), therefore you would be able to assume the ID portion of the string is from digits 29 to 46 inclusive.
NOTE: The ID portion could be from digit 27 to 46 inclusive, or the facility code could be from digit 20 to 29.
Therefore, you may need to analyze these patterns to determine exactly where the codes start and end.
12
Record the start and end locations for the facility code (if used) and ID code for use in setting up Equitrac Office or Express.
13
Close the Card Swipe Wizard.
14
If required, restart EQ DCE Service on the DCE server.
NOTE: It is best to test the assumptions you made during this procedure by reading an HID card with the
PageCounter terminal and verifying that the card can log in. The card points to the correct account if the HID decoding parameters are set correctly.
15
Enable HID decoding on the PageCounter terminal.
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Disabling and Enabling HID Decoding on the PageCounter Terminal
The HID card reader within the PageCounter terminal returns the data from the cards in octal format. However, when
HID decoding is enabled, the PageCounter converts the data returned by the HID card reader into a decimal string as configured by your HID parameters. Therefore you need to Disable HID decoding prior to using the Card Swipe
Wizard to extract the encoded octal data value.
NOTE: By default, PageCounter terminals with internal HID proximity readers have HID decoding turned on. You only
need to disable HID decoding on one PageCounter terminal to determine your HID decoding format.
To disable HID decoding on a PageCounter terminal, do the following:
1
2
3
4
5
Enter Manager Mode on the PageCounter terminal, see your Equitrac PageCounter Administration Guide for details regarding Manager Mode.
Press 4 for Devices.
Press 1 for HID Card Settings
Enable or disable HID decoding by selecting one of the following:
• Press 1 to enable HID decoding
• Press 2 to disable HID decoding. Disabling decoding for the duration of a test ensures that the terminal returns the raw data (represented in octal format) read from the card.
Press F3 (Back) until you exit Manager Mode.
The PageCounter terminal automatically reboots.
WARNING: If you manually reboot the terminal before exiting Manager Mode, your changes are not saved.
You must re-enable HID decoding once you have finished determining your HID parameter values using the Card
Swipe Wizard. Turning HID decoding on again enables the PageCounter to return the proper PINs from your HID proximity cards.
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HID Decoding
Due to the variation in encoding formats allowed by HID, the USB card reader or PageCounter terminals must be configured to return card information in a standard format. You configure the card decoding parameters on the accounting server and these settings are relayed to your USB card reader or PageCounter terminals. For details on how
HID card values are encoded. See
Determining HID Card Encoding
on page 174.
Equitrac Office and Express can support a mixed HID card environment (e.g. different card configurations with different facility codes read by the same USB card reader), and a mixed device and card reader environment (e.g.
Equitrac and non-Equitrac card readers decoding the same ID value from the card). In order to accomplish this, you can create different HID profiles (referred to as "Decoding groups") to determine how a specific card reader decodes the HID card data.
To configure how the USB card reader or PageCounter decodes the ID and Facility codes, do the following:
1
2
3
Ensure that your card type and encoding format are supported, and that you know the details of how your HID
cards are encoded with your facility and ID information. See
Determining HID Card Encoding
on page 174 for
details.
In System Manager, go to Configuration > Security and authentication > User authentication.
Click <None> located beside HID decoding within the Card setup section.
4
In the HID decodings dialog box, click Add from the Decoding groups section.
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5
Enter an HID decoding group name, and click OK.
6
7
Select the group from the list, and then click Add from the Decoding groups settings section.
In the HID decoding dialog box, enter the following:
In the case where you do not need to extract facility code information, check ID codes only. If you need to extract both Facility code and ID code, check both options. a
In the Facility code Start field, enter the position in the raw bit-stream (0 based, left to right, inclusive) where the Facility code begins. b c
In the Facility code End field, enter the position in the raw bit-stream (0 based, left to right, inclusive) where the facility code ends.
In the Facility code Width field, enter the number of decimal digits for the facility portion of the value that the
USB card reader or PageCounter outputs. Numbers are zero-padded on the left as needed. f d e g
In the ID code Start field, enter the position in the raw bit-stream (0 based, left to right, inclusive) where the
ID code begins.
In the ID code End field, enter the position in the raw bit-stream (0 based, left to right, inclusive) where the ID code ends.
In the ID code Width field, enter the number of decimal digits for the ID code portion of the value that the
USB card reader or PageCounter outputs. Numbers are zero-padded on the left as needed. The USB card reader or PageCounter returns a single value for each card swipe that is the decoded facility code followed by the decoded ID.
Enter a Matching facility code if you want the card reader to locate the same facility code on different HID formatted cards.
8
9 i h
Select the Include facility code in PIN option if the facility code is part of the user PIN.
Click OK.
Repeat this procedure for any additional decoding groups you want to define for you environment.
If more than one group is defined, the first group in the list will be used as the default decoding by the embedded device. If you want to change the default, select a group from the list and click Make default.
10
Click OK to save the decoding groups.
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