> -----Original Message----- > From: Mentor Mala [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > Sent: 25 July 2002 08:33 > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: RE: [PHP-WIN] reading input from a magnetic stripe and then > parsing it to a MySQL database for querry? > -- NOT AT ALL.. Thanks.. what I am trying to do actually is maintain > bank accounts through a secure server. What needs to happen is to allow > users to access their bank accounts over the Internet, but through a > card swiping system. Yeah.. NOT SO FUN TO ACCOMPLISH it.. but Thanks > anyways for your response Ross.. >
So you want the users to swipe a card at their machine, which captures the details and sends it to the secure server, correct? Through internet explorer or similar? Well first off, php won't do this, not from the client end. If you are installing card-swipes on the client machines, you'll need a program that reads this information and sends it to the server. This server could well be php driven. the problem is sending the raw data to the server. It would be quite hard to mask (at the client end) what data is sent to the server. The connection may well be secure, but you're still sending text from the client, which the user could easily spoof. The best way to do this IMHO would be a sort of challenge/response type thing. ie the server never asks for the entire card information, rather asks questions about the card. These questions should be enough that there is little or no doubt the user has swiped the card, but the raw card data is never revealed. You'll need an application running at the client end to achieve this however, and this will involve each station having the software installed. Is this meant to be a public solution? It doesn't sound plausible I'm afraid, given each user will need to have a card reader on their machine, plus the software to read it and communicate with the server. Ross -- PHP Windows Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
