Dongle Alternative Name
Lyle Roblez
A website called The Outline sought to a find better name for the device known as the "dongle." The staff there came up with replacement names, and they narrowed the list down to three. Readers voted. The winner? With 50 percent of the vote: dongle.
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: Before we end this last All Tech Considered of 2016, we must consider the dongle.ADRIANNE JEFFRIES: A dongle is a small thing that plugs into a computer or a phone that gives you some added capability either as an adapter or connecting some other device that lets you do a new thing.SHAPIRO: That's Adrianne Jeffries. She's an editor at a news website called The Outline, and she uses dongles, a few adapters, for her new MacBook. But she hates the name and wanted a new one.JEFFRIES: This all started because the word dongle makes me slightly uncomfortable and other people slightly uncomfortable. And it just makes you feel silly saying it.SHAPIRO: So her staff came up with replacement names and narrowed the list down to three.JEFFRIES: Throughport, which we thought sounded cool and futuristic, Schiller, named after the Apple executive Phil Schiller who gave this grandiose speech about how brave it was for them to force everyone to use dongles. And the last word of the three original contenders was plugadoo.SHAPIRO: Readers voted and the winner - drum roll please.(SOUNDBITE OF DRUM ROLL)SHAPIRO: With 50 percent of the vote, dongle.JEFFRIES: It's no use trying to replace it.SHAPIRO: As Adrianne Jeffries writes, you're welcome, America. You have the word you deserve.
A dongle is a small piece of computer hardware that connects to a port on another device to provide it with additional functionality, or enable a pass-through to such a device that adds functionality.[1]
There are varying accounts on the etymology of the word "dongle"; in a 1999 paper, P. B. Schneck stated that the origin was unclear, but that it was possibly a corruption of the word "dangle" (since these devices "dangle" from a port on a PC).[3]
A 1992 Byte magazine advertisement by Rainbow Technologies claimed that dongles were invented by and named after a person named "Don Gall", which spawned an urban legend. Linguist Ben Zimmer noted that the claim was likely a by-product of their "tongue-in-cheek" marketing style, and "was so egregiously false that the company happily owned up to it as a marketing ploy when pressed by Eric S. Raymond, who maintains the Jargon File, an online lexicon of hacker slang."[3][4]
Software protection dongles are typically used to help prevent unauthorized use and copying of certain forms of software. Initially using ports such as the serial port or parallel port, most are now in USB format.
Is there a way to replace the USB Receiver? The keyboard seems like an Chinese OEM brand called Weibo WB-8068 and there's no way I can find anything about it - from their website to other information
From my own experience (which is limited when it comes to dongles) there are usually two types. Bluetooth - but they rarely come with a dongle and a 2.4Mhz (if memory serves) transmitted that uses an unlicensed band for all sorts of things including wireless internet and cordless phones.
The receivers *seem* fairly generic and appear as a human interface device/keyboard to the computer but will pretty much latch onto any keyboard broadcasting in range of about 6-10 feet (a couple of metres but YMMV).
I would suggest the best place to look is eBay and hope you can find a dongle-driven wireless keyboard from a manufacturer no one ever heard of that someone is selling for parts. Given the low cost of these things you'd be hard pressed to find a unicorn like that.
@marcdraco I thank you for the reply! I must ask, would a cheap OEM wireless mouse with the dongle receiver possibly work? This keyboard supposedly comes with a wireless mouse and they use a single dongle. From what I can understand from your comment, a dongle from a wireless mouse would suffice, right? Also, eBay isn't available in my place as it's expensive and takes longer, so I looked at Philippine Online Markets (i live at Philippines)
Unlikely a mouse dongle would work as the USB side of things is telling Windows it's a cordless mouse transceiver and the radio side is getting data (which it will likely ignore) from the keyboard. It's been a while since I tinkered but I have seen dual-mode transceiver dongles that act as a combined device. I was about to say "plug the dongle in to check" but then D'UH! If the dongle can work a mouse or a keyboard then it will be able to do both simultaneously.
If you can at least *browse* eBay (American, Australian and European English sites are good) you might well find the information you need but if the receiver was a dual-mode HID (mouse/kb) then you'd need the same. There is a fancy word that I should know for multiple USB devices in in a single device identifier but I'll be DIYed if I can remember it. (It'll come to me in bed, you watch!)
Annnnnd... I did "unifying" (uni = one, you see?) and that one does come with the USB dongle inside the mouse. I assume you didn't just leave it in there? (I've done it... with my unified keyboard and trackpad, no less!)
Contact the Manufacturer: If you have the product details like the model number (Weibo WB-8068) or any other identifying information, try reaching out to the manufacturer's customer support. They may be able to provide you with a replacement USB receiver or offer alternative solutions.
Universal USB Receiver: Some wireless keyboards and mice can work with a universal USB receiver. These receivers are designed to work with multiple devices from the same brand. Check if your keyboard supports this feature and purchase a compatible universal receiver.
Third-Party USB Receivers: In some cases, you might find third-party USB receivers that claim to work with specific wireless keyboards. However, compatibility cannot be guaranteed, so make sure to check reviews and do some research before buying.
Bluetooth: If your keyboard has Bluetooth capability, you might be able to connect it directly to your computer or device without a USB receiver. Check the user manual or look up online instructions on how to pair the keyboard via Bluetooth.
Replacement Keyboards: Unfortunately, if none of the above options work, you might have to consider getting a replacement keyboard. Losing the USB receiver could render the current keyboard unusable, especially if it's not compatible with any other receiver or doesn't have Bluetooth.
Since you mentioned that the keyboard is from a Chinese OEM brand and information is scarce, it might be more challenging to find specific solutions. However, I hope the options provided above can help you resolve the issue or find a suitable alternative. Good luck!
"The Microsoft Wireless Desktop 900 operates only through the USB dongle which is uniquely paired. Dongles are uniquely and securely bound or programmed to the mouse or the keyboard and are sold as a matched set. Because of the secure binding or programming, we are unable to provide a replacement dongle that would work with the mouse or keyboard."
hi,im just wondering if there is any alternatives for usb bluetooth dongle?basically i don't want to use the usb dongle as they tend to look uggly with a nice stylish sony laptop so i have heard about iINTERNAL BLUETOOTH MODULE OR BLUETOOTH MEMORY STICK.ARE THEY REALLY AVAILABLE and which one you guys will recommend?
i know someone will say buy a laptop with built in bluetooth but i like the fact that i had a mic & webcam built in my laptop saving alot of hardware on my desk
I use the Belkin Bluetooth USB adapter , it's really small, about 5.5cm
i know iv tried it and so many others iv got like 4 usb dongle but if you consider that you v only got 3 usb,1 for wireless mouse one for bluetooth and then anything else your laptop start looking like a crab or caterpillar espacially that you have to add the audio jack and etc...
they haven't even done a docking station with audio for this laptop(fj1s/w).if only i can find a docking station at a decent price compare to what they retail.
Bluetooth is a standard for the short-range wireless interconnection of cellular phones, computers, and other electronic devices. In Linux, the canonical implementation of the Bluetooth protocol stack is BlueZ.
To do this, first pair your device on your Arch Linux install. Then reboot into the other OS and pair the device. Now you need to extract the pairing keys, but first switch off the Bluetooth devices to prevent any connection attempts.
The registry key containing the link keys may only be accessed by the SYSTEM account, which cannot be logged into. Therefore, you will need Microsoft's PsExec tool from the official Windows Sysinternals site in order to run regedit.exe as SYSTEM.
Within this registry key is one subkey per Bluetooth adapter, named by MAC address. If there are multiple subkeys, and you are unsure of which to use, follow this guide to find the MAC address for the desired Bluetooth adapter.
In the desired adapter's registry key, there is a name-value pair for each paired device, with the name being its MAC address. Additionally, you might see some subkeys named by MAC addresses, each containing name-value pairs with names like LTK or IRK. These subkeys (if any) are for Bluetooth 5.1 devices. If the device you're trying to share has a subkey, it is a Bluetooth 5.1 device. If it does not have a subkey, only a name-value pair, it is not a Bluetooth 5.1 device.
Right click on the adapter's registry key and export it as a .reg file. This is a text file that you can copy keys from. As mentioned, it contains pairing keys in name-value pairs for non-Bluetooth 5.1 devices, and pairing keys (and some other information) in per-device subkeys for Bluetooth 5.1 devices. Make this file available to your Linux installation and reboot into it.
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