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From: TEMNGT23@ysub.ysu.edu (Lou Anschuetz)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: Everex BIOS Password
Message-ID: <91164.224523TEMNGT23@ysub.ysu.edu>
Date: 14 Jun 91 02:45:23 GMT
References: <91163.205448TEMNGT23@ysub.ysu.edu>
 <1991Jun13.105945@neiman.east.sun.COM>
 <1991Jun13.184802.14562@b17d.b17d.ingr.com>
Organization: Youngstown State University VM system (YSUB)
Lines: 38

In article <1991Jun13.184802.14562@b17d.b17d.ingr.com>,
hovanes@b17d.b17d.ingr.com (Ken Hovanes) says:
>
>In article <1991Jun13.105945@neiman.east.sun.COM>, evan@neiman.east.sun.COM
>(Evan Marcus (Sun NJ Sys Cons)) writes:
>> In article <91163.205448TEMNGT23@ysub.ysu.edu>, TEMNGT23@ysub.ysu.edu (Lou
>Anschuetz) writes:
>> |> student lab will soon lead to each and every one having a password
>> |> on it.  Argh!
>>
>> Seems to me, all you have to do is put your own password in first.
>
>That's what I thought.  I just thought I misunderstood the article.  Of
>course, you know students.  They'll take the pc apart and take out the
>jumper for the bios battery, damn them.
>>
>> Am I missing something?
>
>Am I missing something as well?
>
To use the machine, according to the sales people, students have to
enter this hardware password.  This means I have to give them the
password.  Once you have the password you can change it to anything
you want.  So, now I've given them a password and made it clear that
they can change it to something else.  If I don't set it at all at least
only the ones who discover it will set passwords.  Also, I have to
merely notify 15,000 students each and every quarter as to what the
password is.  Plus, I now have to fix the ones with the changed
passwords just like not having one initially installed.  I think
this is a severe problem at a very minimum.  As it is now I have to
run setup on about 50% of our machines each and every day since
students change it.  To remove the password means having the machine
battery out for 2 hours!  With 63 of these machines already on campus
in labs  it could take 40-50 hours per day just to remove password.
Hmm, seems like a problem here....  :-)

Lou Anschuetz
temngt23@ysu.edu