We were issued card readers and the ITs set them up I think it is similar to the PKI cert that was used prior to the CAC cards. If you have an NMCI laptop you can use that at home as well.
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It's a NMCI world
- Thread starter S.O.B.
- Start date
We were issued card readers and the ITs set them up I think it is similar to the PKI cert that was used prior to the CAC cards. If you have an NMCI laptop you can use that at home as well.
MasterBates
Well-Known Member
Your NMCI laptops are not chained to their desks?
No. I've never seen any that are. Wouldn't that defeat the whole purpose of having a laptop.
Ours were always free range laptops, as well. The problem was that they were (and I'm sure still are) incredibly slow to boot up. And of course you have no user rights to enable hibernation.
This may merit a thread split, but for guys like me who have been out of the fleet for a bit, what is the current state of NMCI? Is the system bad but workable, or completely intolerable to the point that it significantly impedes your daily work productivity. I only had to use it for about 1 year (before CAC readers), and I hear all the horror stories second hand from my fleet buddies. Bottom line, what's up with NMCI and what solutions (if any) are at our disposal to make it better?
Brett
As much as I disliked elements of NMCI when I was in the fleet (under PACOM's control), it wasn't nearly as bad as it is under NETC/LANTFLT (or whoever controls this side of the world). Boot up times are much slower and just trying to do something simple as open IE or the new Outlook makes the computer pause. Some of this might be because of the computers aging (more stuff in the registry, patches upon patches, etc), but it is slower to do things than I remember from before.
Then there's the CAC readers. Because everyone uses them, they break a lot, rendering a community computer useless until the techs can come back and put a new keyboard. Makes me wonder how much we spend on keyboards now. Just the act of logging back into a locked computer w/ you CAC takes longer since the data that has to get passed moves slower than just using a login password (card cert to keyboar to computer = low bandwidth).
Lastly, it would take a supercomputer to crack the old password requirement of NMCI several weeks to break the password (upper case plus number plus special char). Now our PINs are just a couple of numbers, which would take even a NMCI machine a couple of minutes to break. Is this a practical concern? No, but something I find amusing, especially when we're supposed to surrender our CAC to the bad guys if captured.
Then there's the CAC readers. Because everyone uses them, they break a lot, rendering a community computer useless until the techs can come back and put a new keyboard. Makes me wonder how much we spend on keyboards now. Just the act of logging back into a locked computer w/ you CAC takes longer since the data that has to get passed moves slower than just using a login password (card cert to keyboar to computer = low bandwidth).
Lastly, it would take a supercomputer to crack the old password requirement of NMCI several weeks to break the password (upper case plus number plus special char). Now our PINs are just a couple of numbers, which would take even a NMCI machine a couple of minutes to break. Is this a practical concern? No, but something I find amusing, especially when we're supposed to surrender our CAC to the bad guys if captured.
you'll learn about that later. nuff said.
It doesn't, they torture/kill you.......
Is he joking?
oh how i long for the days of NMCI. i hate, hate, hate the one network/tnosc. it even sends you emails to let you know that your email service is down. what a helpful tool.
Other thing that slows the computers down -- is the number of profiles on each computer -- a product of not enough drops/computers. Big problem on FRS computers with the number of students logging on.
I actually like the CAC card -- don't have to try and come up with/remember a new password every 90 days.
I actually like the CAC card -- don't have to try and come up with/remember a new password every 90 days.
Brett, here are some major problems. Like it has already been said, the number of profiles on these computers is a big issue. These can only be taken care of by the NMCI reps on base, not even by calling NMCI’s trouble number. This is the main problem. IT’s only have administrator rights when the command is deployed. We can’t even change the clocks, defrag, or do any other troubleshooting. You can’t have more than 6’ of line, and adding or moving drops is very expensive. The wing won’t pay for anything right now. Plus, all this doesn’t get into the cost the wing pays for each laptop. You could buy a new high-end computer every two months with the cost the wing pays. I could keep going on. I can’t wait until the contract is up.
The other issue is that with all the limtations the S-6 or IT guys have no ability to trouble shoot or otherwise maintain a network wo when you deploy you get a very painful set up period, everytime.
This was a very poorly thought out purchase, great in theory not so good in practice.
This was a very poorly thought out purchase, great in theory not so good in practice.