Advantages of the POSM Dongle

You probably knew that the primary delivery method of a POSM Software license is a program downloaded onto a PC or laptop. But did you know that, once your company is juggling a “fleetful” of licenses, we can also send you access to the program on a dongle, which offers your company organizational flexibility that you might not have known about.

First, let’s address the elephant in the room. If you don’t know what a dongle is (this writer didn’t until a couple of years ago) yes, “dongle” is a real word. Yes, it’s a funny word. Hysterical, even. So let’s take a moment, tell yourself all the jokes you need to, have a good laugh, and then continue this article when you put your serious face back on. We’ll wait.

Rackmount with POSM Dongle Activated.

Now let’s move on to purchasing the POSM dongle.

• Click on this link to talk to our tech support.
• You tell them which software license you want to purchase and that you want to want to run it through a dongle. We’ll invoice you and take payment at that time.
• We’ll schedule an update of any active POSM software on your computers as needed.
• We express-ship the dongle to you. It arrives ready to plug-and-go.

Unplugged Dongle.

The dongle, as you can see in the photo above, looks like a USB flash drive. In many ways, it operates like a flash drive. It activates when you plug it into the USB port of a PC. It will run on any computer you plug it into. In fact, and this is the important part: the software and its license travel with the dongle, not the computer.

...the software and its license travel with the dongle, not the computer.

From a user standpoint, this is super-simple. You plug the POSM dongle into the computer. It does a few internal things and you're off and running with the purchased software. SOP is to leave the dongle plugged in. Just pretend it’s a permanent part of the computer and never remove it.

Dongle Activating POSM License Viewed in POSM Database Connection Manager.

Here are some obvious and not-so-obvious advantages of using a POSM dongle:

• Dongles are the best organizational option if your active fleet consists of 10 trucks or more.
• Dongles are relatively inexpensive and incredibly durable. They are likely to outlast the machines they are plugged into. And when that happens….
• Because the license is tied to the dongle and not the PC, the license can be moved to a new PC whenever you retire or upgrade your computer. Just unplug the dongle and insert it into the new one. This also means...
• You can “float” the dongle between several PCs as needed, but the license can only run on one computer at a time (whichever computer the dongle is currently plugged into). Just to repeat it again, the license is attached to and activated by the dongle, not the computer.

POSM Version and Dongle Activation Seen on Top Left of POSM's Main Screen.

The flexibility to move your license as needed is a huge advantage over a standard license download. A dongle will continue to grant you access to your software whenever you:

• Swap out a hard drive
• Update Windows
• Swap out a malfunctioning Sensoray for a working one
• Move the dongle to an entirely new computer

With standard license downloads, (for security reasons) users are required to contact tech support to resolve each of these issues.There is usually no additional charge involved, but it’s a necessary inconvenience. With a dongle, you can keep on working.

Let’s dig a little deeper into swapping out a Sensoray.

A Sensoray is a small but necessary component, plugged into the crawler’s camera video output, and is essential for capturing inspection video. When your crawler’s Sensoray malfunctions in the middle of an inspection (which tends to happen at the most inconvenient times) the inspector can just replace the malfunctioning Sensoray with a working one and continue the inspection. This sort of flexibility is not possible with the standard licensed software download. (To read our blog about the Sensoray, click here.)

Dongles are the best organizational option if your active fleet consists of 10 trucks or more.

Dongles aren’t for everyone, but they offer a number of organizational advantages to companies whose truck fleets are starting to get larger. They just might just be the solution that hadn’t occurred to you. To discuss your situation and whether dongles make sense, click here to talk to our tech support. We can set you up with your own copies of the POSM Software program of your choice, pre-loaded onto a dongle for easy, safe, convenient portability.