

Apart from software protection, dongles can enable functions in electronic devices, such as receiving and processing encoded video streams on television sets.ĭaisy chained parallel port copy protection dongles.Įfforts to introduce dongle copy-protection in the mainstream software market have met stiff resistance from users. In the absence of these dongles, certain software may run only in a restricted mode, or not at all.

In software protection, dongles are two-interface security tokens with transient data flow with a pull communication that reads security data from the dongle. The hardware key is programmed with a product key or other cryptographic protection mechanism and functions via an electrical connector to an external bus of the computer or appliance. When connected to a computer or other electronics, they unlock software functionality or decode content. JSTOR ( March 2008) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)Ī software protection dongle (commonly known as a dongle or key) is an electronic copy protection and content protection device.Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.įind sources: "Software protection dongle" – news Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. This article needs additional citations for verification.
