Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!quimby From: quimby@madoka.its.rpi.edu (Quimby Pipple) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware Subject: Re: Everex BIOS Password Message-ID: Date: 15 Jun 91 05:57:11 GMT References: <91163.205448TEMNGT23@ysub.ysu.edu> <1991Jun13.105945@neiman.east.sun.COM> <91164.131028TEMNGT23@ysub.ysu.edu> <1991Jun14.125403.9529@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> Reply-To: quimby@mts.rpi.edu Lines: 49 Nntp-Posting-Host: madoka.its.rpi.edu Well, I finally made it work work, we faxed some stuff to Everex, and now we have some more information. I'll just do this in question and answer format. phil@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Phil Howard KA9WGN) writes: >It seems to me that Everex did a very poor job of planning out this >feature change. You could certainly take this to mean that they have >written off the educational lab market. Everex introduced a new model motherboard with some new features, one of which is password protection. The initial response to passwords was entirely positive -- users were able to protect their machines from other workers if they wished, and shared machines with 'keyed alike' passwords worked to keep the non-office people. The blind spot was an installation with shared machines and *hostile* users that all have to be able to use the machines. This kind of thing doesn't happen too much in a normal environment, fortunately, or mouse ports would have weld tabs. Anyway, Everex is aware of and working on the problem. They haven't forgotten the educational market, they merely underestimated the destructive tendencies of the average 20 year old. If anyone has questions about the fix, or the status of the fix please send a message to Tom Duchesneau, at duchesneau@mts.rpi.edu. (I'm letting my employer handle this one.) Please limit this to exclude random curiousity. I'll post any information of major importance here, but if you're having a problem, email is fine. Note that this is not the address of Everex, Inc. I probably shouldn't speculate here, but it seems to me that since this is a new board, the simple fix of using an old version BIOS won't work. I would also guess that in the near future the machines will be available in either a passworded or non-passworded version. Again, this is just my daydreaming. > You should talk DIRECTLY TO >THE VP OF MARKETING at Everex and see if he understands what his >company has done. I suppose this kind of thing works fine in a K-mart, or a McDonald's, or something, but it really doesn't apply here. Besides, they're really a nice bunch of people over there. Quimby -- quimby@mts.rpi.edu, quimby@rpitsmts.bitnet