Parallel Port Dongle Hardware Key?

[BCinSC]

Who uses them anymore? My P.O.S. software! Something left out of consideration when shopping for new rackmount server - none of which have a parallel port. Can I use one of those USB to Parallel thingys?

 

[DaveSimmons]

If not:

The software company might have USB replacement dongles, did you check?

Can you put a PCI parallel-port card into the server?

 

[wallsfd949]

Originally posted by: BCinSC
My P.O.S. software!

Do you mean Point Of Sale or other?

 

[BCinSC]

Point of Sale. Aloha specifically.

 

[selene]

What software ? A lot of my company crap used to use that but the company switched to MAC address based.. but all that have been cracked..

 

[redbeard1]

Can you put a PCI parallel-port card into the server?

This could be the easiest solution. I highly doubt that a usb converter is going to work, but that is just my guess. I do know from experience that if you want any form of a new key, for any reason, that you will pay dearly with most vendors.

 

[BCinSC]

Vendors may find their customers not so happy that they are not keeping up with changes in technology.

 

[Abhi]

My accounting software does it too. Problem is my laptop doesnt have a parallel port.

I contacted them, there are no USB replacements available. The Parallel port locks says "HASP" or something.... might be the company.

Is there any workaround for this?

A software hack or something?

 

[Abhi]

Originally posted by: redbeard1

Can you put a PCI parallel-port card into the server?

This could be the easiest solution. I highly doubt that a usb converter is going to work, but that is just my guess. I do know from experience that if you want any form of a new key, for any reason, that you will pay dearly with most vendors.

The usb to parallel port didnt work for me....

 

[BCinSC]

Cheapest PCI parallel card and where can I get it?

 

[BCinSC]

I could scream and kick myself a hundred times. Bought this really expensive rackmount Dell server for this project I'm working on. Turns out, software requires hardware key (dongle) that plugs into parallel port. No rackmounts have parallel ports anymore, so I ordered a PCI Parallel card before looking to see if I had any open slots, which I don't - this server doesn't have onboard NIC so one slot taken by NIC and other by RAID card. Shoot me, please.

 

[redbeard1]

How about pulling the nic to clear a slot and using this adapter?

USB2 network adapter

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

Gotta love companies stuck in the stone age. Parallel port.. bleh.

 

[BCinSC]

That adapter is cool, but is it better than Linksys USB100M for $21 or USB200M for $22 or even USB10T for $32 USB100TX for $35?

AND

Does Dell PowerEdge 650 rackmount support USB2.0 or just 1.1? Can't get definitive answer from website. It is a P4/2.4/533, but who knows what chipset.

One more possible problem:
"2 total: 1 x 64- bit/133MHz PCI-X slot, 3.3v (occupied by integrated NIC), 1 x 64-bit/33MHz PCI slot, 3.3v (available). Only Universal PCI adapters (6.875" length) that are 3.3V or Universal are supported"

Will the PCI Parallel card I bought, and likely any available, be compatible? Is says PCI2.1 compliant.

 

[redbeard1]

USB2 tops out at 480Mbps compared to 12Mbps for USB1. Assuming that this server needs to pass data, faster should be better.

You might check your device manager. If it has usb2, it's usually listed there.

This link describes someone's pci card and the related voltages. If your card has the double slots like the picture, then it should be a universal card.

Pci faq

 

[de8212]

Had the exact same problem at my work. We bought a pci > parallel card and it owuldn't even install on the server. Luckily our vendor swapped us out with a usb key and took the parallel one back.

 

[Looney]

Well, it's listed in device manager as 2.0 if you have the SP patches installed... actually, come to think of it, even if you don't have teh SP patches installed to enable it as 2.0, and it is 2.0, you'll at least get the exclamation point in device manager.

 

[BCinSC]

redbeard1, you're an amazing plethora of info - greatly appreciated. Everyone else, too. The parallel card is 5v only. The USB ports are 1.1 only. Back to the drawing boards. Anybody need a nice 1U rackmount P4/2.4/533 512MB 2x40GB RAID1 Dell PowerEdge 650 server?

 

[high]

I got $20 if you need it taken off of your hands