USB Dongle - moving between work & home?

DareBee · Post by **DareBee** » Thu Apr 01, 2004 12:54 pm

Hi all,

I'm going to be relocating my machine shop and will need the ability to prepare VMP files at home as well as at work during normal business hours (whatever they are...). With only one seat of VM, I currently use a parallel port dongle but am considering the USB version for ease of swapping between PC's etc. Anyone doing this already and have you experienced any problems? TIA.

Cheers, Peter

John Loftus · Post by **John Loftus** » Fri Apr 02, 2004 11:57 am

Peter,

I switch back and forth between my desktop PC running Windows2000 and my laptop running XP with the USB dongle. No problems so far.

Cheers,
John

buckie · Post by **buckie** » Fri Apr 02, 2004 1:07 pm

How can I trade my parallel dongle for a USB version

buckie · Post by **buckie** » Sat Apr 03, 2004 12:00 pm

Hi John,

Thanks for the feedback - I was hoping there would be no probs. Do you power down before removing or do it via the task shutdown icon that pops up in the toolbar whenever a USB device is active?

Buckie, officially, you have to return the parallel dongle and then Mecsoft sends you a USB one for a modest handling fee, I think. But that means you're VM-deprived while it's in transit. Because I'm in Canada and have to deal with Customs, I'm hoping that if I give Mecsoft my credit card number as collateral they might ship the USB one and give me 7-10 days grace to ship the parallel one back before billing me for a second seat of VM. Sound reasonable?

Cheers, Peter

John Loftus · Post by **John Loftus** » Fri Apr 16, 2004 3:17 pm

Peter,

Sorry for taking so long to reply. With USB you don't ever have to power down. XP handles it better ... you can just plug it in and out without getting any dialog boxes. In Win2000 Pro you will get an error box if you yank it out without going through the taskbar icon. My USB camera does the same thing so I usually go through the taskbar icon but haven't noticed any performance problems after the error box either.

I am very lucky in that I only live about 10 miles from Mecsoft. I was able to just call ahead, drive over and switch for the USB dongle.

-John

windsor · Post by **windsor** » Tue Apr 20, 2004 2:55 pm

I move my parralel port dongle between computers quite a bit . I live in Canada to, so the customs thing has put me off of the usb switch . I do however have a parallell port switch box on the desk that I put the dongle on . This saves unplugging printers and crawling around under the desk

windsor · Post by **windsor** » Tue Apr 20, 2004 10:29 pm

Hi all,

I use a parallelport dongle and switch between work and home on three diffrend PCs. for better handling I have a parallelport printercable from the back of every PC to my desk. There I conect/disconect the dongle without shutdown my PC. No Problems, no messagebox. Only when the dongle is not connected VM responses an Massage.
This works on Win2000 Pro and XP-Home.
On Desktop-PC and Laptop.
There is no need to switch the dongletype to USB.

I hope this helps.

windsor · Post by **windsor** » Thu Apr 22, 2004 7:58 am

Hi all,

Thanks for the experiences you've described, I went ahead and ordered the USB version from the Canadian rep for VM. It hasn't arrived yet, but the order is in process. I thought about plugging and unplugging the parallel version via a cable on the desktop but just felt that doing so without powering down, might cause a problem. With all the firewall antivirus stuff loaded, re-booting takes so many minutes, I hate powering down/ rebooting. I figured the USB version might be a bit easier to transport, too. Anyway, I'm sure either way will work.

As for the secret code stuff, Mecsoft advised the dongle comes with a 30 day key, so you have a month to register the new dongle and enter the license codes etc.

Cheers, Peter

windsor · Post by **windsor** » Thu Apr 22, 2004 9:53 pm

Hi Peter R

that is what I do with my parralelportdongle. Plug and unplug the dongle without(!) powerdown and reboot.

Best Regards
Peter

DareBee · Post by **DareBee** » Fri Apr 23, 2004 5:00 am

When I purchased VM about a year 1/2 ago Id never even heard of a dongle.
Then my software should up and I couldnt use it. My sales rep told me I had to plug the security key (dongle)in. This sort of annoyed me as my XPC doesnt have a parallel port.
I fealt that I should have been made aware of this dongle unit. It should be listed at the top of the list of system requirements and be mentioned that it is available in USB or parallel.
I had my reseller replace it with the USB unit and it cant be beat for convenience of use.
I have never had a problem hot swapping it on Win 2000.

John Loftus · Post by **John Loftus** » Sat Apr 24, 2004 12:42 pm

Peter S,

Actually, I needed to switch to the USB dongle. I have a newer Toshiba laptop which does not have a parallel port.

Cheers,
John