Ads
related to: what are dongles used for in pc
Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
A dongle (center, in white) allowing an ethernet cable (left, in grey) to be connected to a Thunderbolt port on a laptop (right). A dongle is a small piece of computer hardware that connects to a port on another device to provide it with additional functionality, or enable a pass-through to such a device that adds functionality. [1]
There are potential weaknesses in the implementation of the protocol between the dongle and the copy-controlled software. For example, a simple implementation might define a function to check for the dongle's presence, returning "true" or "false" accordingly, but the dongle requirement can be easily circumvented by modifying the software to always answer "true".
Requiring user to verify the license, often by entering a Product key in order to activate and use the software; some activation schemes require sending registration information over internet to prevent the same product key from being used by multiple users. In some cases, users are required to call a number to register and receive device ...
USB dongles are typically used in software licensing schemes to unlock software capabilities, [73] but they can also be seen as a way to prevent unauthorized access to a computer or other device's software. The dongle, or key, essentially creates a secure encrypted tunnel between the software application and the key.
One early use of the parallel port was for dongles used as hardware keys which were supplied with application software as a form of software copy protection. Other uses included optical disc drives such as CD readers and writers, Zip drives , scanners , tape drives , [ 12 ] external modems , gamepads , and joysticks .
Such devices can use an external power supply, which is allowed by the standard, or use a dual-input USB cable, one input of which is for power and data transfer, the other solely for power, which makes the device a non-standard USB device. Some USB ports and external hubs can, in practice, supply more power to USB devices than required by the ...
"Dongle is a generic term for small external devices designed to plug directly into a port on a computer, smart TV or other intelligent device, to provide additional functionality." In the notes below "computer" is used to cover intelligent devices such as computers, smart TVs, etc. - anything to which the dongle adds additional functionality.
A related application is the hardware dongle required by some computer programs to prove ownership of the software. The dongle is placed in an input device and the software accesses the I/O device in question to authorize the use of the software in question.
Ads
related to: what are dongles used for in pc