My organization is finally implementing CAC’s and will be using ActivCard Gold software to run them. When we started this process the ActivCard Gold software (v2.x) supported Lotus Notes and Dave Kern verified that Lotus Notes supported Smart Cards and the ActivCard software. The newest version of ActivCard Gold software (v3.x) doesn’t support Lotus Notes, checking their website they have removed any reference to Lotus Notes. If I can’t get this to work we will be forced to move to Microsoft Outlook as our e-mail client in order to properly use the CAC’s we are required to use. If we can make ActivCard Gold work with Lotus Notes, or use another software that will give us the same functionality I would be thrilled.
PLEASE HELP ME FIND AN ALTERNATIVE SO I DON’T HAVE TO USE OUTLOOK!
Subject: ActivCard Gold v3.x HELP - or I’m Outlook Bound!
I’ve been told by a reliable source that ActivClient 5.0, which has recently replaced the ActivCard Gold line for new accounts, “seems to work fine” with Lotus Notes 6.5. We haven’t tested this ourselves internally yet, but I have a couple of the new “ActivCard Smart Card 64KA4” tokens on my desk, and it’s on the list of things to do. The list of tested smartcard packages in the Notes/Domino release notes is not exclusive, and should not be interpreted as the only packages that work – just that sampling that we’ve had the opportunity to test.
I’d recommend testing ActivCard Gold v3 with Notes before getting too worried. I’d be surprised if ActivCard Gold 3.x didn’t work just fine, especially with the more recent versions of Notes – we’ve been enhancing our smartcard support steadily since the feature first shipped in 6.0.
If you do run into problems using Notes with ActivCard Gold v3, please post the details here – I’d be interested in finding out what functionality changed to break compatibility between the two products, and then seeing what can be done to fix things.
Good luck,
dave
Subject: Dave Kern - More Help Needed Please!
Don’t know where to start…I have gone into User Security/Your Identity/Your SmartCard. I’ve set up Notes to use the acpkcs211.dll driver for my smartcard (ActivCard Gold for CAC). Under Configuration Details it reads all the information from my card. When I try to enable SmartCard login to Notes I get the following error message “SmartCard login was not enabled: Insufficient free space on SmartCard. Please contact your administrator”.
When I go to Your Certificates and try the button Get Certificates the option to “Import Internet certificate from SmartCard” isn’t selectable. (Additionally I’m uneasy about the concept of copying the certificate from the card into Notes for security reasons)
I’m at a standstill, it’s looking like Outlook is going to win at this point. What I need to be able to do is sign and encrypt e-mail in Notes with the certificate on the SmartCard without copying the certificate from the card.
If it is possible to take this off-line and get this to work I would appreciate the help. I have to give my recommendation by weeks end on staying with Notes or migrating to Exchange, all because of the CAC issues. My e-mail address is Gary dot Backlund at sofsa dot mil
Thanks,
Gary
Subject: Responded off-line
Subject: Functionality added to 6.0.5/6.5.3 for this problem
Just in case anybody else was following this thread before it was taken off-line…
The inability to smartcard-enable the ID file as described earlier in this thread was due to a read-only smartcard being used. In order to circumvent this problem (SPR #DKEN5XZVH9), in 6.0.5/6.5.3 we added the ability to use pre-loaded certificates and private keys that are stored on smartcards with Notes/Domino without first smartcard-enabling the ID file. As long as the PKCS#11 library is correctly configured and a token is present in the reader, then the “Import Internet Certificates from a Smartcard” menu option will be available, as described in the “Importing Certificates from Smartcards” release note. The new functionality (and remaining limitations) will be described in the release notes for ND 6.0.5/6.5.3.
dave
Subject: RE: Functionality added to 6.0.5/6.5.3 for this problem
I have followed this thread as I do work with Gary. It was fixed in later versions of 6.5.x. I have noticed that now that we are up to 7.0.2 the the problem is back. Any suggestions?
Thanks in advance!!!
Chris