USB over the internet or Dongle sharing for Fun and Profit
Jul 22, 2025
This is a fun one.
Did you know there are simple and very inexpensive applications that let you share your F-Response (and other) USB license dongles out over the internet so that you can use our products on far-flung machines?
There are.
In fact, there are two of them we routinely recommend to customers because we’ve had such great success with them:
The concept is simple. You plug your F-Response (or other forensic license dongle) into your machine, then leverage one of those products to “share” the dongle with a remote system (basic network access and configuration not withstanding).
Why would you do that? The reasons are many, but the most common are cost savings and reach. We’ve got a number of customers who set up “Forensic working machines or ‘jump boxes’” they set up in diverse locations within their network they can access via Remote Desktop(“RDP”). Using either of the products mentioned above, they can keep their forensic dongles in their local possession, but still forward the licensing device directly to the remote machine. This means they can have the full software installed on those remote machines but only enable it when needed.
It’s a simple way to extend your forward capability.
We’ve also seen customers use the native USB forwarding technology in more recent versions of RDP, but keep in mind that when the RDP session goes away, so does the dongle. That’s why we prefer the tools mentioned above. Both of them give you a full USB device on the remote machine and are not dependent on your RDP session staying open.
Even better? Both products are very inexpensive.
We like the concept so much, we even wrote a whitepaper on it a few years ago. You can find it here.
Bottom line, check them out, see what works for you, and extend your arsenal the F-Response way!
Warmest Regards,
Matt