AnywhereUSB/5 and ReadyKey Pro

I’m starting my post off with info on our setup. We have a VM running Windows Server 2003 that has the Ready Key Pro software running on it. Ready Key Pro controls access to the various building doors on our campus. We are using an AnywhereUSB/5 to provide this VM with access to an Rainbow Super Pro license dongle that is required for the Ready Key Pro software.

The problem I’m having is that when I reboot the VM, the Ready Key Pro services are starting before the AnywhereUSB/5 has had a chance to finish attaching itself to the VM. I’m then having to go back into the server and restart a particular service. After that, the problem is resolved until the next reboot. I’m not seeing any kind of an Anywhere USB service running that I can set as a dependency for those services. Any advice? Thank you.

Hello,

We periodically get reports of an issue where a USB license dongle that’s attached to an AnywhereUSB isn’t recognized by the related software. If you look in Device Manager, both the AnywhereUSB and the dongle appear to be installed properly, i.e. no yellow warning icons.

Some customers have resolved this issue by following one of these methods. We suggest trying them out, one at a time.

  1. Run the AnywhereUSB Configuration Utility, click “File / Preferences” and check “Use Microsoft Device IDs”. Note that this option is only applicable to newer AnywhereUSB driver versions, so you may need to update the AnywhereUSB driver first, to the latest version, which you can get from our support site.

  2. Disable DEP (Data Execution Prevention), a security feature of modern Windows Operating Systems.

  3. Go into the BIOS of the PC and disable the parallel port, if it’s not actually being used, of course. Note that virtual machines have BIOS’s and even if the physical PC that the virtual machine is running within doesn’t have a physical parallel port, the option still may be in the BIOS.

  4. Add the dongle as a “permitted device” by carefully following the “AnywhereUSB Permitted Device List” instructions in the Appendix of the AnywhereUSB Installation guide. Add the dongle specifically, based on its PID/VID. Note that this option is only applicable to newer AnywhereUSB driver versions, so you may need to update the AnywhereUSB driver first, to the latest version, which you can get from our support site.

If none of these suggestions help, you may want to do a “sanity check” by testing out the dongle with it connected directly to the host PC, bypassing the AnywhereUSB, to try to narrow down the issue. If that scenario also doesn’t work, then something else (other than the AnywhereUSB) is most likely at fault. Since typical “AnywhereUSB and dongle” applications use virtual machines, you may need to use a different physical PC in order to perform that test.

JeremyM,

Thank you for the reply. I’ll give it a shot and see what happens.

Robert

Hello rskellogg. Did you try all of the suggestions listed above (disabling DEP, parallel port, etc.) and if so, were you able to resolve your problem?

If not, please feel free to contact our support. For the fastest response, please check our Eservice Support portal at http://www.digi.com/support/eservice/login.jsp

Thanks