Two computers on one dongle

Sass · Jul 11, 2011

I have a program which runs with a USB security key (dongle). My colleage sitting next to me keeps unpluging the dongle to use it on his PC. This is realy frustrading and requires lots of fumbling under the desk. Is there any device out there that let us to run the program on two computers with only one dongle?

Any advice would be most welcome

huskermcdoogle · Jul 11, 2011

its called a nethasp, and you have to pay extra for that....

SwarfsUp! · Jul 11, 2011

Sass, I had a similar problem with one of our USB dongles. A USB switch like this
solved the problem nicely. Since only one computer at a time has access to the dongle,
I don't see how a software vendor could complain as it's no different than
physically moving the dongle, but without the wear and tear on a potentially
expensive dongle.

len_1962 · Jul 11, 2011

Sass said:
I have a program which runs with a USB security key (dongle). My colleage sitting next to me keeps unpluging the dongle to use it on his PC. This is realy frustrading and requires lots of fumbling under the desk. Is there any device out there that let us to run the program on two computers with only one dongle?

Any advice would be most welcome

just get a switchbox like they have for 2 cpu's to 1 keyboard, mouse and monitor

Sass · Jul 11, 2011

Thanks, we have tried one of these USB switch boxes. The problem is as soon as one flick the switch the program on the other machine gets terminated. The software does not give warnning to save the work.

SwarfsUp! · Jul 11, 2011

Sass, I misunderstood your question. If you want to the software on two
computers simultaneously, you're almost certainly running afoul of the software
vendor's license. Sorry, no help here.

len_1962 · Jul 11, 2011

Sass said:
Thanks, we have tried one of these USB switch boxes. The problem is as soon as one flick the switch the program on the other machine gets terminated. The software does not give warnning to save the work.

well ya its the same as pull the dongle out of one machine and putting it in the other, the link is broken.

even with a networked dongle for one seat of software you would have to shutdown the program pefore starting it on the other CPU.

buy another seat and network the dongle.

tmt · Jul 11, 2011

I have to call BS on this!!! You mean to tell me that two people sitting next to one another, communication skills are so poor, that one cannot tell the other they need to use it!

I believe that you are trying to find a way to bypass the single user license agreement of the software. I don't believe you will get your answer here!

Chip Chester · Jul 11, 2011

Get one computer for the software, and use screen sharing over the network to run it from other machines.

If you're running Macs (which I'm sure is highly likely

) it's built in. Don't know about other OSs, but I'm sure there are third parth programs to do it. Still only one user at a time. But you only have one key.

How much is another key?

Chip

Sass · Jul 11, 2011

We purchase the program 6 years ago. It costs us £1,200 for one seat. We could have purchased a second seat at that time for additional £600.00. We recently approached our vendor for purchasing another seat. We were told that we have to upgrade to the latest version and the cost including additional seat will be £3,400. Under current financial squeeze we can not afford this. To me this looks so unfair. Well, we have to manage with what we have got.

trevj · Jul 12, 2011

If you have need of two programmers running simultaneously, how can you NOT afford a second seat?

Otherwise, the solution is pretty simple. Throw a couple USB extension cables onto each of the computers, so you have access without having to grub around behind the desk, and play nice together.

I'd suggest getting into the settings and getting it to autosave every 5 minutes or so, too, if you can't be convinced to play nice and communicate when you need the dongle. At least then, only the last 5 minutes of work is lost, when the co-worker pulls the plug on you.

Howzit go? If you need a tool and do not buy it, you will have paid for it, and you still don't have it. Something like that, anyway.
Henry Ford, badly paraphrased, I think.

Cheers
Trev

Stuart Caruk · Jul 12, 2011

Actually there is a super simple way to do this. 3 or 4 years ago at IMTS I bought a bunch of really cool file sharing devices from Ncomputing called an L230. They ran a couple hundred bucks. I'm pretty sure there is a newer version available currently.

Essentially it's a small black box that connects via an Ethernet port and has a place to plug in a keyboard, monitor and USB device. What it does is allow you to open a remote session on another computer.

You could have several computers on your network, but lets say for example that only one of them has Microsoft Office on it. ON that computer you can open several sessions of office and cut and paste between them at will. This device allows you to open one session on the main computer, and another from your remote system. I found that any software that allows you to open up multiple sessions will work as well. If you can open up your CAD/Cam software and have one project on your computer, then open up another session with another project, this will work just fine and eliminates the need to move the dongle around.

I use it to have all the programming data upstairs in an office, but still have the software available on the shop floor for edits, etc.

doug6949 · Jul 12, 2011

The L230 device might in fact work. It would take a very creative interpretation of the EULA to believe this approach is somehow less inappropriate than simply obtaining a crack.

Doug

Chip Chester · Jul 12, 2011

Something like "on any given clock pulse, only one user is using the software"?

Chip

J_Harrington · Jul 13, 2011

Sass, there are products on the market that do the job you want to do. Just do Google search on "DONGLE SHARING". There are both software and hardware solutions available. I am not sure whether these are completely legal or not, but surely adapting any of these solutions is far less inappropriate than simply using a crack version.

len_1962 · Jul 15, 2011

J_Harrington said:
Sass, there are products on the market that do the job you want to do. Just do Google search on "DONGLE SHARING". There are both software and hardware solutions available. I am not sure whether these are completely legal or not, but surely adapting any of these solutions is far less inappropriate than simply using a crack version.

no different than using a cracked version!
1 seat of software = 1 computer running the software. PERIOD!

software is a tool and I bet if they had to buy endmills or other tooling to do their job they would spend the money.

J_Harrington · Jul 25, 2011

len_1962 said:
no different than using a cracked version!
1 seat of software = 1 computer running the software. PERIOD!

software is a tool and I bet if they had to buy endmills or other tooling to do their job they would spend the money.

I have to disagree with you. Sharing a dongle between two or more machines is not the same as using a crack software. It is far from it. As long as your license terms and condition allows you to install your software on muliple machine you should be ok to use either software or hardware solutions to share your dongle.

software and hardware solution are avalable from Fabula Tech, Sysnucleus, Belkin (network hub), SmarterX and Eltima are legal as they allow only one user to share the dongle at the time.

doug6949 · Jul 25, 2011

J_Harrington said:
I have to disagree with you. Sharing a dongle between two or more machines is not the same as using a crack software. It is far from it. As long as your license terms and condition allows you to install your software on muliple machine you should be ok to use either software or hardware solutions to share your dongle.

software and hardware solution are avalable from Fabula Tech, Sysnucleus, Belkin (network hub), SmarterX and Eltima are legal as they allow only one user to share the dongle at the time.

I have a program which runs with a USB security key (dongle). My colleage sitting next to me keeps unpluging the dongle to use it on his PC. This is realy frustrading and requires lots of fumbling under the desk. Is there any device out there that let us to run the program on two computers with only one dongle?

The OP wasn't interested in one person - two computers, as the initial post shows.

I am not sure whether these are completely legal or not, but surely adapting any of these solutions is far less inappropriate than simply using a crack version.

The intent is entirely the same - more users than licenses.

Doug

J_Harrington · May 16, 2015

Dongle sharing device

doug6949 said:
The OP wasn't interested in one person - two computers, as the initial post shows.

The intent is entirely the same - more users than licenses.

Doug

HEY SASS, Just Google DONGLE SHARING and you get what you whant.

J_Harrington · May 16, 2015

Hey Sass, Just Google DONGLE SHARING and you get what you whant.

Two computers on one dongle

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