That would be up to the software. Basically the software checks to see if the dongle is there and if it is then the software does whatever the software does. If no dongle, then the software stops running or might go into a demo mode (again, that's up to whoever wrote the software).

There's no specific thing that a dongle allows or not. It's simply a special piece of hardware that software designed to recognize it can then check for it and recognize it.

Dongles usually have some encrypted number stored in them that relates to whatever company or software it is used for. So a dongle supplied by, for example, Newtek to use with Lightwave 3D software is useless to run Vision engraving software, even if the dongle is manufactured by the same dongle maker and looks exactly the same. It's internal encrypted number is different so the software doesn't recognize it.

That all depends on the software.

I know of one dongle that will allow you to run all one companies machines from it. But when the code is changed it can run many, but not all, machines from different companies.

It all depends on what the writers want to protect and what they want to allow.

Philadelphia, PA (Really Bensalem)

When you finally understand it completely... it changes.