Transferring a dongle

[Alex Geronimo]

Can someone help me out here? I'm trying to replace an old computer that is
acting as a server. The software that the network is running requires a
dongle on the parallel port of the server. I do not have
any drivers for the dongle; however, everything is currently functioning
correctly so if the dongle does require any drivers, they are already
properly installed.

I have tried installing the software to another computer by simply copying
the directory and moving the dongle over, but the program cannot find the
dongle.

The program runs in DOS and all of the computers are running Windows ME.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

 

[Todd H.]

Can someone help me out here? I'm trying to replace an old computer that is
acting as a server. The software that the network is running requires a
dongle on the parallel port of the server. I do not have
any drivers for the dongle; however, everything is currently functioning
correctly so if the dongle does require any drivers, they are already
properly installed.

I have tried installing the software to another computer by simply
copying the directory and moving the dongle over, but the program
cannot find the dongle.

The program runs in DOS and all of the computers are running Windows ME.

Any suggestions?

Drivers provide a level of abstraction for programmers who write
programs that might access peripheral devices. For example, a piece
of Fax software can be written such that it doesn't require explicit
knowledge of every faxmodem on the market, but instead, it just makes
operating system function calls that are generic. The device-level
specifics are handled by a driver.

Typically software that uses dongles does so assuming it can have
direct acccess to parallel port to read the dongle. As such, no
drivers are really needed--because only that piece of software will
ever access the dongle.

To help answer you question can you tell us what operating system the
current system (the one where the dongle works just fine) is running?
You said all computers are running WinME, but I just want to make
sure. I'm pondering whether winME might be blocking your DOS program
from unfettered access to the parallel port. Carefully scrutize the
differences between the two machines in regards to printer setup...if
a parallel port printer is configured in ME, for instance, I might
believe that it could interfere with a DOS program trying to read a
dongle from LPT1, for example.

I might say registry settings might be involved, but if your program
is a full-on DOS thingee...then the registry isn't involved. DOS
programs run in virtual machines of sorts in Windows, so it may be
worth investigating some of those settings in the DOS shortcut that
provides you your command prompt for running the program.

Finally, I'd push this problem back o nthe vendor of this software.
If it requires a dongle it probably cost you a pretty penny, and came
with some support.

Best Regards,

 

[Morten Lundstrøm]

Can someone help me out here? I'm trying to replace an old computer that is
acting as a server. The software that the network is running requires a
dongle on the parallel port of the server. I do not have
any drivers for the dongle; however, everything is currently functioning
correctly so if the dongle does require any drivers, they are already
properly installed.

I have tried installing the software to another computer by simply copying
the directory and moving the dongle over, but the program cannot find the
dongle.

The program runs in DOS and all of the computers are running Windows ME.

Any suggestions?

Did you remember to set the parallel port to EPP in bios? or perhaps it's
called 'bi-directional' mode

/Morten