Getting PCSC reader serial number with WinSCard - windows

Question

I have a problem with getting PCSC reader serial number if card is not present in the reader. I am using winscard.dll and c++.
The following code will work only for the case if card is present in the reader. Otherwise the SCardHandle is not retrieved. I haven't found any other way to get SCardHandle.
SCARDHANDLE hCardHandle;
SCARDCONTEXT hSC;
WCHAR pCardReaderName[256];
LONG lReturn;
lReturn = SCardEstablishContext(SCARD_SCOPE_USER, 0, 0, &hSC);
if (lReturn != SCARD_S_SUCCESS)
{
Console::WriteLine("SCardEstablishContext() failed\n");
return;
}
my_select_reader(hSC, pCardReaderName); // just shows reader names in console and requires you to pick one
// connect to smart card
DWORD dwAP;
lReturn = SCardConnect( hSC,
(LPCWSTR)pCardReaderName,
SCARD_SHARE_SHARED,
SCARD_PROTOCOL_T0 | SCARD_PROTOCOL_T1 | SCARD_PROTOCOL_RAW,
&hCardHandle,
&dwAP );
if ( SCARD_S_SUCCESS != lReturn )
{
Console::WriteLine("Failed SCardConnect\n");
exit(1); // Or other appropriate action.
}
// get reader serial no
LPBYTE pbAtr = NULL;
DWORD cByte = SCARD_AUTOALLOCATE;
lReturn = SCardGetAttrib(hCardHandle,
SCARD_ATTR_VENDOR_IFD_SERIAL_NO,
(LPBYTE)&pbAtr,
&cByte);
if ( SCARD_S_SUCCESS != lReturn )
{
Console::WriteLine("Failed to retrieve Reader Serial\n");
exit(1); // Or other appropriate action.
}
printf("serial no: %s", pbAtr);
SCardFreeMemory(hCardHandle, pbAtr);
Is there a way to get readers serial number without connecting to card?

Answer 1

Maybe i'm a bit late - but anyway...
You can connect directly to the card reader using the SCARD_SHARE_DIRECT flag with SCardConnect. At least with us this works fine.. (we use a protocol flag of "0x00")

Answer 2

You should be using:
lReturn = SCardConnect(hResManager,szAvailRdr,SCARD_SHARE_SHARED,SCARD_PROTOCOL_T1,
&hCardHandle,
&dwActProtocol);
Instead, try using:
lReturn = SCardConnect(hResManager,szAvailRdr,SCARD_SHARE_DIRECT,
NULL,
&hCardHandle,
NULL);
where szAvailRdr refers to the reader name (smartcard readername) and hCardHandle is a handle obtained before using scardconnect.
This should keep you going!