X-Ways Dongle

Dongles

As a genuinely licensed user of
our dongle-based software product variants, you are provided with a small sophisticated USB hardware
device that unlocks the software and that is required for execution of the
software.

Our dongles have the following
advantages:

• A dongle driver does not need to be
  installed. No reboot is required after attaching the dongle. Since X-Ways Forensics does not need to be
  installed either, that means you can run X-Ways Forensics directly
  on a live machine from media such as a CD or USB stick, without
  unnecessarily destroying data by overwriting free space on the
  subject drive, without unnecessary changes to the system registry,
  etc.

• The dongle does not act as a USB
  mass storage device, but as a human interface device (HID), just like
  a USB mouse. Like that, the dongle usually is not affected by
  USB port security locks enforced by administration.

• The software may be installed on
  several of your computers at the same time even if you only own a
  single license, for your convenience. Attaching the dongle renders
  an installation executable. A dongle can be quickly exchanged
  between different computers.

• Your license is represented
  by a physical object. It is easy to connect to your system. Install
  or simply execute X-Ways Forensics, plug in the dongle, and everything works.

• You can store textual information inside the dongle from within X-Ways
  Forensics. Use this to have notes always available when working
  with X-Ways Forensics or simply to personalize your dongle with
  your name and address. The dongle could thus be a good place to
  store some hints, best-practice procedures or the like you wish
  to keep handy when using X-Ways Forensics.

• The dongle helps us to protect
  against software piracy and consequently to keep prices
  reasonably low.

• It can be
  insured against loss or
  theft, free of charge. If not insured, lost means lost and no
  replacement. If you lose an uninsured dongle, do not ask us
  about a new dongle and do not ask us to use the dongle of a
  different license as a replacement for the lost dongle.
  Questions like these are futile and only have disadvantages for
  you. You will forfeit the chance of a
  good-will discount on the purchase of a new license.

• The software does not require
  Internet access to authenticate the license.

• Works in virtual machines. (If
  your dongle repeatedly disconnects in a virtual machine, change
  settings to use USB 2.0 instead of USB 3.0.)

• Up to 16 dongles can be attached
  to the same computer at the same time. (However, you may want to
  consider a single multi-user dongle instead, see below.)

Weight: approx. 7 g ~ 110 grains ~
1/4 ounce
Dimensions: 5.3 × 1.7 × 0.7 cm or 2.07 × 0.62 × 0.37 inches
Operating temperature: 0°C – 70°C
Storage temperature: -10°C – 80°C
Humidity: 20% – 80%
Certifications: CE, FCC

Material value declared when
mailing the dongle overseas: EUR 7
Price that we charge for a dongle: EUR 0 (we do not sell the
dongles, just “provide” them to unlock the software, 1 per license)
Delivery time overseas by postal mail: 4 days – 6 weeks
(varies greatly, no shipping charges, no tracking number)
Delivery time overseas via DHL Express or FedEx Int’l Priority: 1-3 working days
(for a surcharge, please specify your phone number in the order
form!)
Surcharge for delivery of the dongle via DHL Express or FedEx Int’l Priority:
depends on destination country, please see order form

A malfunctioning dongle can be
exchanged for a new dongle. It must still be in your possession,
including the metallic plug. Lost, misplaced or stolen dongles are
not replaced, only if they were
insured. If you
lose an uninsured dongle, you cannot receive another dongle for that
license. You could purchase a new license, and in that case we may be
able to offer you a discount and apply the calculatory value of
unused access to updates of the previous license (only if you do not
ask us about a new dongle for the existing license).

Dongles have a serial number
printed on the outer case or engraved in the metallic plug, starting
with the letter R. However, we do not use that number to reference
dongles. We use the so-called hardware ID instead, which is
displayed in the program if the dongle is attached, in the Help |
Dongle dialog. You can easily copy the ID from there. The first 8
digits are constant and sufficient to identify a dongle.

Two alternative to dongles
that may be available for certain license types are
BYOD and BYOD+. With BYOD there is no waiting time before you can use the
software!

There are different types of dongles:

• Regular dongles (color:
  green) represent 1 license each and
  allow 1 user to execute X-Ways Forensics on 1 computer at a time
  each, locally, even multiple instances of the program. Multiple
  dongles attached to the same computer are supported as of v16.5 to allow for
  multiple simultaneous users. The new “Smart” dongles are supported by
  default as of v17.7 SR-13, v17.8 SR-16, v17.9 SR-9, and v18.0 and later.
  They are labelled “R4 SMART”.

• Multi-user dongles (color:
  green) represent x licenses each
  (more than 1, no more than 50) and allow x
  users to execute X-Ways Forensics on 1 computer (e.g. via

  Remote Desktop Services/Terminal Services) at a time.

• Network dongles
  (color: red) can represent 1 or
  more licenses (depends on how many licenses you order/have) and can be
  found by the software on the
  network. A dongle server program (alternatively available as a
  service) that we supply must be run on
  the machine with the dongle (a Windows machine) so that the dongle can be found.
  Supported by v16.8 SR-10, v16.9 SR-4, and v17.0 and later. If a network
  dongle with no more than 50 licenses is attached locally, it
  works exactly like a regular or multi-user dongle (depends on
  the number of licenses). With more than 50 licenses, it can only
  be used through the network interface (i.e. the dongle server
  program must be running on that computer). Multiple network
  dongles on the same or different machines on the same network
  can be used at the same time, and if more than 1 network
  dongle is found by the program, the user can choose one (if any
  of the dongles are fully utilized already by as many users as
  possible based on the number of licenses that they represent,
  this is shown).

How many simultaneous users a
dongle supports, i.e. how many licenses it represents, can be verified in X-Ways Forensics at Help |
Dongle. When multiple users at the same time share a
regular dongle (which in fact must not
be shared) or a multi-user dongle and
they exceed the maximum number of allowed simultaneous uses (1 for a
regular dongle), then the new user will
push aside a previous user, i.e. a previous user will be requested
by the software to save and stop his work and will eventually be
kicked out. The behavior may change at any time. With a
network dongle if the maximum number of
allowed simultaneous uses has been reached, new users have to wait
until the session(s) of a previous user terminates.

If you would like to exchange
regular dongles that you already have
for 1 network dongle, you can find
pricing and an order form

here (pricing subject to change). All the dongles that you
wish to swap must still be functional and returned to us upon
receipt of the network dongle, and they must actually reach us (you
can request deactivation codes for them and apply them to at least
make them useless when you send them out).

Important:
If you wish to order your licenses with anything other than
regular dongles, you must select that
with your online order/must specify that on a purchase order sent to
us, or else you will get regular
dongles!

Dongles may be sent out in an inactive
or only temporarily usable state
and once received must be activated with an activation code. All
dongles remain our property. If you are interested in a
multi-user dongle when buying multiple licenses, please ask
first.

X-Ways dongles can be made
available to a remote system through RDP (RemoteFX
USB Redirection). Tested on a Windows 8.1 system and a remote
virtual Windows 8.1 system in Azure (Microsoft cloud computing),
where to run X-Ways Forensics. This can extend the range and
flexibility of X-Ways Forensics for imaging and analysis work. For
details please see

here (works the same with X-Ways dongles).

USB Network Gate,
USB
over Ethernet and
Donglify also work.

Returning dongles