3.4 Smart Card Interface

The method can communicate with the smart card using PC/SC interfaces or PKCS#11 interfaces. When using PC/SC interfaces, the smart card middleware vendor provides an MS CAPI provider. The method can automatically detect and use the proper MS CAPI provider. PC/SC mode is the recommended setting and should work with most smart card middleware on Windows.

If PC/SC communication is failing, you might want to try PKCS#11. When using PKCS#11, you must specify the correct vendor PKCS#11 DLL. The library must be in the system path so it can be loaded by the method. You might need to contact the middleware vendor for the specific PKCS#11 library name. Below is a table of common PKCS#11 libraries.

Table 3-1 Common Vendors and PKCS#11 Libraries

Vendor

PKCS#11 Library Name

Active Card

acpkcs211.dll

Netsign

core32.dll

GemPlus

gclib.dll

eToken

eTpkcs11.dll

CryptoVision

cvP11.dll

Rainbow iKey

ckdk201.dll (Only PCKS#11 mode is functional for iKey devices)