FingerPrint 1.0 by Brian E. Smith User's Manual (c) 1991 by Brian E. Smith. All rights reserved. Table of Contents I. Introduction to FingerPrint 3 II. About the Program 5 III. Installation 7 IV. Running FngrPrnt 9 V. Running IDCheck 11 VI. Appendix: How to Contact the Author 16 I. Introduction to FingerPrint FingerPrint 1.0, by Brian E. Smith, is designed to improve your chances of recovering your computer system, in the event of theft. The premise behind FingerPrint is fairly simple: if someone steals your system, it is unlikely that he will take it home and use it himself; the thief is probably more interested in turning it into quick cash. Also, although the thief may or may not steal your system peripherals, it is very unlikely that the thief will set up (or even know how to set up) the system EXACTLY AS IT WAS before it was stolen, to demonstrate that the system works to a potential buyer (perhaps a pawn broker, or someone at a flea market). The FingerPrint program (FngrPrnt) polls various devices in your system, and records their status in your system's FingerPrint. The IDCheck program, installed in your system's AUTOEXEC.BAT, also polls the devices in your system at start-up, and compares the results to the original FingerPrint. If there is any difference in the FingerPrints, IDCheck displays a window containing your name and phone number. Suppose you have computer system with a printer and a modem. You create a FingerPrint of the system, and install IDCheck to verify the FingerPrint every time you start the computer. Then, unfortunately, your computer system is stolen. The thief also took your printer and modem. The thief then went to the pawn shop, to sell your machine. The broker asks the thief to prove that the system works, so the thief quickly plugs the monitor into the back of the machine. When the thief turns the machine on, IDCheck notices that the configuration is different from normal (i.e., perhaps the printer or the modem is no longer attached), so IDCheck beeps and displays the following window ÉÍ IDCheck ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ» º º º -- WARNING: SYSTEM ENVIRONMENT HAS CHANGED -- º º º º Please contact: º º Brian E. Smith º º 59 Main Street º º º º Piedmont, SC 29673 º º (555)555-5555 º º Reward if found. º º º º Press a key to continue... º ÈÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ (c) 1991 by Brian E. Smith ͼ The pawn broker now knows that the machine is stolen, and knows who the real owner is. He can then contact you and the police, so you can get your system back. II. About the Program FingerPrint is being distributed as Shareware. If you like the program, and your package is unregistered, the registration fee ($15) would be appreciated. This is what you will receive with your registration: a diskette from the author containing your registered version (as well as a number of other programs), free support for FingerPrint, and a free diskette containing the next version of FingerPrint (when available). Once you are registered, you will receive super discounts on future versions of FingerPrint. The unregistered version is not handicapped in any way; however the registered version is a few bytes smaller, because I don't have to include the "beg text." If you do decide to register, please let me know how you got the program (just to satisfy my curiosity). If this package will be used at all in a business or governmental environment, the registration fee is mandatory. FingerPrint is a copyrighted program. I'm a programmer, not a lawyer, so I'll not try to impress you with a bunch of legal-sounding nonsense. You are not permitted to modify my program in any way, nor are you allowed to do any of the things that copyrighting normally prohibits you from doing. Please use my program, but please don't steal it. Please pass FingerPrint along to others, even if you don't like it, because someone may like and need it. Thanks. Comments, suggestions, and even bug reports are greatly appreciated. DISCLAIMER FingerPrint is supplied as is. The author disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, including, without limitation, the warranties of merchantability and of fitness for any purpose. The author assumes no liability for damages, direct or consequential, which may result from the use of FingerPrint. III. Installation This section describes how to install the FingerPrint programs, FngrPrnt and IDCheck, on to your machine. If you have received a diskette containing the FingerPrint programs in an unarchived format, simply copy FNGRPRNT.EXE and IDCHECK.EXE into a directory that is in your DOS path. You can determine your path by typing the following: C:\>SET COMSPEC=C:\COMMAND.COM PROMPT=$P$G PATH=C:\;C:\DOS;C:\DOS\TOOLS The directories C:\, C:\DOS, and C:\DOS\TOOLS are in your DOS path. You can copy the files FNGRPRNT.EXE and IDCHECK.EXE into any one of them. For this example, the diskette is in drive A, and you will install the files into the C:\DOS\TOOLS directory: C:\>COPY A:\FNGRPRNT.EXE C:\DOS\TOOLS 1 File(s) copied C:\>COPY A:\IDCHECK.EXE C:\DOS\TOOLS 1 File(s) copied If you have received a diskette containing the FingerPrint programs in an archived format, or if you have downloaded them off of a Bulletin Board System (BBS), you must first "unarchive" the programs and then copy them into a directory in your DOS path, as described above. The FingerPrint package is now installed and ready to run. IV. Running FngrPrnt This section describes how to run the program FngrPrnt to create a FingerPrint of your system. For best results you should start your system by first turning on all your attached peripherals and then booting the computer itself. This will allow FngrPrnt to get a more unique FingerPrint. When your system is powered on, and all attached peripherals are powered on as they should be at boot-up, execute FngrPrnt by typing the following: C:\>FNGRPRNT If this is the first time you have ever run FngrPrnt, the program will create an initial FingerPrint for you. You will then see the Main Menu and the Messages Window. The Main Menu contains the following choices: FngrPrnt, Owner, Save, Help, and Quit. You select choices from the menu by either moving the cursor with the Left and Right arrow keys and pressing Enter, or by simply pressing the first letter of the item you wish to select. FngrPrnt -- Select FngrPrnt if you want the program to re-create your system's FingerPrint. If this is the first time you have ever run FngrPrnt, the program has already created a FingerPrint for you, but you may re-create it, if you wish. You normally use this option after you've made a change to your system; for example, adding (or removing) a peripheral. Owner -- Select Owner to input information about yourself: this information will be displayed by IDCheck if IDCheck determines that the system configuration has somehow changed. You can input your name, address, phone number, and a brief comment (for example, "Reward if this machine is returned," "This Computer is Stolen," etc.) Save -- Select Save to save the current FingerPrint and Ownership information. Help -- Select Help to display a brief help text for the FngrPrnt program. Quit -- Select Quit to return to DOS. If the current FingerPrint is not saved, FngrPrnt will ask you whether or not you want to save the FingerPrint. V. Running IDCheck This section describes how to install and run the program IDCheck to verify the FingerPrint of your system. If you have just run FngrPrnt, go ahead and run IDCheck. C:\>IDCHECK Assuming that you haven't changed anything (that is, turned a peripheral on or off) you should get a message saying that the FingerPrints are OK. Now turn off a peripheral, then run IDCheck again. IDCheck should beep and display a window similar to the following: ÉÍ IDCheck ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ» º º º -- WARNING: SYSTEM ENVIRONMENT HAS CHANGED -- º º º º Please contact: º º º º º º º º º º º º º º º º Press a key to continue... º ÈÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ (c) 1991 by Brian E. Smith ͼ Press any key to leave the IDCheck program. This was just a small demonstration of how IDCheck works. To use IDCheck regularly, you must install it into your AUTOEXEC.BAT, so that it will be run each time you boot up your computer. If you do not presently have an AUTOEXEC.BAT, you can create one by typing the following: C:\>COPY CON AUTOEXEC.BAT DATE TIME IDCHECK ^Z 1 File(s) copied If you have an AUTOEXEC.BAT, you can edit it using DOS's EDLIN program to include the IDCheck program. The rule of thumb in installing IDCheck is to install it as near as possible to the end of the AUTOEXEC.BAT file, and ensure that it is placed after the PATH statement, and ensure that it is placed before any DOS shells or Menu programs you might have. C:\>EDLIN C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT End of input file *L 1:*@ECHO OFF 2: C:\DOS\TOOLS\WATCH 3: C:\DOS\TOOLS\DOSEDIT 4: PATH C:\;C:\DOS;C:\DOS\TOOLS 5: PROMPT $P$G 6: MENU The rule of thumb says you should place the IDCheck statement as near as possible to the end, past the PATH statement, but before any Menu programs or DOS shells. For this example you decide to place the IDCheck statement between lines 5 and 6. *6i 6:*IDCHECK 7:*^C You now list the file again, to make sure everything's correct. *L 1: @ECHO OFF 2: C:\DOS\TOOLS\WATCH 3: C:\DOS\TOOLS\DOSEDIT 4: PATH C:\;C:\DOS;C:\DOS\TOOLS 5: PROMPT $P$G 6: IDCHECK 7:*MENU Everything is in order, so now you can save the file and leave EDLIN. *E C:\> Now every time you boot your machine, IDCheck will check that the system's configuration is identical to the configuration FingerPrint created by FngrPrnt. A situation may sometimes occur in which IDCheck will say that the configuration has changed. In essence, IDCheck is saying that it is getting a different response from an attached peripheral than what IDCheck expected. In this case check to see that the peripherals are on when you boot, and that their status is the same as when you ran FngrPrnt (that is, ensure that the printer isn't out of paper [or broken], or make sure your modem is functioning correctly). If everything appears to be normal, then simply run FngrPrnt again, and select the FngrPrnt option. VI. Appendix: How to Contact the Author Direct mail correspondence to: Brian E. Smith 59 Main Street Piedmont, SC 29673 I will gladly accept registrations, comments, suggestions, and even bug reports. However, I cannot provide support for users of unregistered copies. Registered users will get my telephone number which they can use to contact me for support. I am pleased to announce that the Official Support BBS for FingerPrint is CyberTECH Information Systems BBS, based in Greenville, South Carolina. CyberTECH can be contacted by setting your modem to No Parity, 8 Data Bits, 1 Stop Bit, and dialing (803) 242-3766. There you will always find the latest version of FingerPrint, other programs by the same author, as well as one of the finest collections of Shareware and Public Domain programs in the beautiful Upstate of South Carolina. If you happen to be calling in the area, another fine BBS you should call is the Programmer's FORUM! BBS (803-862- 4616; modem settings N81). There you will find a programmer's dream come true: all sorts of programs and source code for a wide variety of languages.