dongle
 
 
 

A piece of hardware that attaches to a computer that provides a method of licensing Maya.

The advantage of the dongle is it allows you to easily move your license from one computer to another. The disadvantage of a dongle is that it is only available on the Windows platform and only works on a parallel port. Also, if you lose a dongle, you have lost your Maya software and must purchase another copy of Maya to get it replaced.

Also known as hardware lock.