Dongle (disambiguation)

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A dongle is a small hardware device that connects to a computer to authenticate an item of software.[1]

Dongle may also refer to something that plugs into a computer and converts a small (often proprietary) port or plug into a larger standard plug. Dongles tend to consist of two connecters that are attached to one another by a length of cable that that hangs (dangle) from a laptop computer. For example:

  • A jack wired to a small edge connector on a Type I or II PCMCIA card, typically an 8P8C modular connector for an Ethernet cable or RJ11 jack for a telephone cable. This type of dongle has no copy prevention purpose. PCMCIA card dongles are notoriously fragile and unreliable. They are falling out of favour as more laptops include built-in Ethernet and modem sockets.
  • USB adapters, such as for memory cards.
  • Other USB devices, primarily flash memory drives, used only for data storage (as opposed to USB Hardware Token Devices).
  • The word has also been applied to Bluetooth and Wi-Fi antennas.
  • It is also been used to refer to ATI CrossFire Interconnects

[edit] References

  1. ^ Late 20th century. Origin uncertain: probably an arbitrary formation. Microsoft® Encarta® Premium Suite 2004.
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