Mag-Stripe Devices for a LAN?

bugaloo2 writes "Is there such a thing? I'm looking for a magnetic stripe (magstripe) card reader of some kind that can connect directly to our network and read/write data to a SQL table. There are dozens of different serial, usb, and ps2 style card readers to connect to a PC, but none that I have seen can connect directly to a LAN. If such a ghost does not exist on the market today, how would you (cheaply) implement an access card security system for several buildings using existing network infrastructure and hardware if possible that reads/writes to a SQL table for security access?" We did a related question not too long ago.

Comments

tini board+serial mag reader?

[Bazzargh]

If this really is just a hobby thing and you're not looking at building thousands you might look at hooking up a tini board to a serial mag stripe reader.

There's instructions on the tini board website:
http://www.ibutton.com/TINI/applications/sertoet h/ index.html
showing serial-to-ethernet conversion. Unlike the embedded ethernet card someone else mentioned tini comes with a jvm onboard, javaComm and networking support.
Add to this a port-powered swipe reader eg
http://www.magtek.com/products/card_readers/card al l.htm

and you're off. The whole lot should cost you well under $300.

Havent tried this myself yet but a coworker has a tini on order I'm going to be programming for.

Perhaps roll your own?

[cr0sh]

Start with a serial mag-stripe reader (many can be gotten for cheap from surplus electronics outlets like All Electronics).

Add a Basic Stamp 2 from Parallax (or maybe your own PIC and extra EEPROM) and a MAX232 to communicate to the reader.

Connect that to one of these boards.

Write your own custom code to do real basic IP stuff for the networking (have fun!)...

Should be able to do all this cheaply - less than $300. Hard part is the coding, getting a small IP stack written to fit, and comm protocol code as well. It is more than possible though...

Finally, when you have it all done, got the VC's lined up stuffin' your pockets with cash, and you bring it to market - think of me, and send me a check of appreciation... ;)

Worldcom - Generation Duh!

Serial lan server and serial readers.

[rasjani]

If you dont find any good solution, you might consider buying a device that allows serial devices connected into lan. One example would be ex-Chaser's (now Perle) IOLAN products. With this kind of device you can hook up your serial magnetic card readers to the normal wall outlets thats used for networks but ofcourse instead of hooking the stuff to the switch/hub you connect it to the iolan. Then the rest of the stuff is pretty much peanuts depending what kind of functionality you need but in anycase you will be doing the software implementation yourself for your own needs.

One more thing about iolan. Its pretty neat when you get it to work. All ports in the device are shown to the lan as socket ports. Say, i have (and i do have) bank of modems connected to the thingie and i want to use one of them from any machine to dial out. "telnet iolan 10001" does the trick and voilã, i have really dump terminal at my disposal. Ofcourse there's software to have these ports accessible as devices in unix fs but atleast on SCO environment that we have, it hasnt been working really well.

--

Suggestion..

[cmowire]

I haven't heard of such a box and I'm not sure if anybody's made one yet. There are building security systems, but they generally require a whole specilized set of hardware.

On the other hand, there are options. The best one would be to get a USB or PS2 magstripe reader and attach it to an embeddable computer -- Check EMJ Embedded for systems. It's $500-600 for a system with USB, Ethernet, serial ports, and a decently fast Pentium processor. That should get you exactly what you want.

AT&T CampusWide - minor correction

[pupsterCA]

I'm a technician on a campus that uses the CampusWide system (Optim9000). AT&T actually sold off the CampusWide division to Blackboard.com late last year. This is the updated URL. The system runs on an HP-9000 server (HP-UX 10.x, soon 11.x), and uses its own proprietary network format and database (I think it's called Raima, but don't quote me.) It can run across a standard LAN, but for reliability, it's usually set up to run on its own separate network. CW is supposed to be releasing a piece of hardware that will allow readers to use IP addressing, but it hasn't materialized yet (they keep saying 'soon'). The system can handle point-of-sale, access control, digital photo-ID production/management(uses an Informix database and DataCard software/hardware to store pictures/print IDs) and scales upwards effortlessly. Our campus has well over 200 readers, 15,000+ cardholders, and 99%+ up-time. I know that USC, UCLA, Duke, Harvard, and around 400 other schools use this system. (Even Honda Motor Co. uses it at one of its plants.) It's not cheap, though. Hope this helps.