Author Topic: Dongle  (Read 1863 times)

celeste

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Dongle
« on: 10:37:00, 30/05/10 »
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Chained parallel port copy prevention dongles.A dongle is a small piece of hardware that connects to a laptop or desktop computer.[1] It is a portable device and is often close to the appearance of a USB flash drive. Although earlier use of dongles was to authenticate a piece of software, the word dongle is now also widely used to refer to broadband wireless adapters [2][3] or in general to connectors that translate one type of port to another. The term dongle can also refer to audio recording connectors.
Electrically, the authentication dongles mostly appear as two-interface security tokens with transient data flow that does not interfere with other dongle functions and a pull communication that reads security data from the dongle. These are used by some proprietary vendors as a form of copy protection or digital rights management, because it is generally harder to replicate a dongle than to copy the software it authenticates. Without the dongle, the software may run only in a restricted mode, or not at all. Despite being a hardware device, dongles are not a complete solution to the trusted client problem. When using a dongle, it is necessary to emphasize the importance of making sure there is enough bandwidth to successfully run applications.
Contents[hide]
  • 1 History
  • 2 Copy protection
  • 2.1 Usage
  • 2.2 Issues
  • 3 Game consoles
  • 4 Other hardware
  • 5 Manufacturers
  • 6 Popular culture
  • 7 See also
  • 8 References
  • 9 External links
  • All that's necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing

    celeste

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    Re: Dongle
    « Reply #1 on: 10:38:19, 30/05/10 »
    All that's necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing


     

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