How to share a USB dongle?

Donglify Pros and Cons

With the easy and secure connectivity and the multi-connect feature, Donglify is beyond all doubt a very handy and user-friendly app. And now that you know how to share a USB dongle over the network, let's talk about Donglify’s pros and cons.

Pros:

• A USB security dongle can be shared over a wireless network connection so multiple users can remotely control and manage the device.
• Donglify eliminates physical wear and tear on the dongle and protects it from being stolen without limiting the ability of users to access the device.
• Donglify is a cross-platform solution that lets you share license keys with computers running Windows or macOS.
• Donglify is an easy-to-use solution that requires minimal effort to install and configure. You can get started quickly and don’t need additional hardware or software to share a USB dongle over the network.

Cons:

• You can’t use Donglify if one (or both) of the machines you’re using it on doesn’t have an Internet connection.

How to share a USB dongle between 2 computers?

There is another solution you can use for sharing a USB dongle between two (or more) computers: a hub. It’s a hardware device, and thus understandably has some limitations as to the number of dongles you can plug into it, and how many machines can access a dongle at every instant. Plus, you only can use this option if you have physical access to your dongle. By way of example, let’s take a closer look at Smart Logic’s USB dongle sharing hubs:

SmarterX-USB. It’a a wired dongle sharing hub, so you won’t be able to use it on a remote PC if it’s more than 5 meters away. There are two versions of it — with 3 and 5 USB ports. Both are compatible with every type of dongle on the market and work with Mac OS and OS Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7/8/10. The ceiling amount of users you can share your dongle with through this hub is 5.

SmarterX-NET. It’s a USB dongle sharing hub that works as a USB dongle server. You plug it into your LAN switch, and every dongle connected to it becomes instantly accessible from all networked machines in your office. This eliminates the need to physically attach the dongle to each user’s machine for them to see it just as if it was plugged into their computer directly. The maximum number of remote PCs that can connect to a dongle in parallel is 6.

The bottom line

When sharing a USB dongle over the network with a dongle sharing hub, you are physically limited by the hardware in terms of how many dongles you can insert. There is also a limit to how many connections can be made concurrently to the physical dongle. You also, of course, need to have access to the physical dongle.

Using a software solution like Donglify overcomes these restrictions. Donglify’s multi-connect feature allows multiple simultaneous connections while keeping the physical dongle safe and secure in one known location.

Unlike USB dongle sharing hubs, Donglify also offers additional benefits in terms of how you make your USB accessible:

• You can give users direct access via your Donglify account.
• You can create and send invites to other users to connect to your device with their own Donglify accounts.
• You can create and share login tokens to allow others to use your account without having to actually divulge your login credentials.