Stolen dongle

[Brian Knuckles]

Hello there...does anyone know of a cheaper way to get a replacement dongle?

We had our shop broken into and they stole a PC, of course the one with the dongle on the back.

I have Ergosoft PosterPrint v.2008

Any info would be great

[Joe Pelonio]

That's a large format printing RIP package?

Dongles are a pain, but a good way for them to protect from piracy. Most companys require them to be registered, so you should be able to get them to replace it by invalidating the old one and sending a new. Are they trying to charge you an arm and leg? The dongle itself can't be worth $1 without the software. There are websites that are supposed to have code to defeat a dongle but unlikely for that program.

Maybe the thief will sell the dongle on E-bay?

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Brian,

If you filed a police report and have a copy of it, you might fax it to the company and they would be willing to send you another one free and as Joes suggested invalidate the other one.

[Peter Bell]

For a moment I thought I thought I had lodged on to the wrong site. What's a dongle?

pete

[Scott Shepherd]

It's basically an electronic key that verifies your software is not pirated. When you get into some of the more expensive software, written by smaller companies, they like using them. They send the dongle with the software and you have to plug it into a port on your computer. When the software and dongle speak, it verifies it's a legal copy. If you remove the dongle, the software won't work.

[Dave Wagner]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dongle

[Jim Underwood]

The dongle replacement cost can vary widely from company to company.

AutoDesk, DelCAM, and Planit use them, among others. I'm not sure what AutoDesk policy is on their dongle, but Planit offers replacements at a fraction of the software cost (I believe Solid Ultimate is $10K and the key replacement is like $500 I think) but DelCAM makes you pay the full cost of the software (also $10K) for the loss of the ArtCAM dongle.

It's best to find out the replacement cost before it's lost or stolen, and insure it....

[Albert Nix]

The last thing I do before I leave the shop is unplug my doggles and drop them in my brief case and home we go.