Windows XP / Smart Card Reader

[pookierabbit]

Hi,

I was hoping to start looking at Smart Cards for user authentication in a corporate environment.
As part of this though I was wondering if you can use a Smart Card reader / card combination on a standalone Windows XP machine (for testing) or it does have to be part of a Windows 2003 active directory?
Based on any of the above can anyone recommend a fairly good cheap Card reader for doing some simple testing? I was thinking of putting it on my home XP setup.

Thanks for your help.

 

[linney]

Note: In order to use smart card authentication the computer must join a domain. Therefore smart cards cannot be used on a local workgroup machine".

From the paragraph "Group Policy Objects and Smart Card Authentication".

Securing Mobile Computers with Windows XP Professional

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/evaluate/mblsecxp.mspx

http://groups.google.com/groups?q="smart card" +xp+cheap&rls=com.microsoft: