Citrix states in their article: CTX638413

CTX638413 - Using Dongles for Rainbow Technologies' Sentinel Software

This document was published at: http://support.citrix.com/kb/entry.jspa?externalID=CTX638413

Document ID: CTX638413, Created on: Jul 13, 2000, Updated: Apr 23, 2003

Products: Citrix WinFrame 1.8

Legacy dongle applications have always attempted to access the system hardware directly, which prevented their use on WinFrame and Windows NT systems. Rainbow Technologies has recently created an updated Windows NT driver that intercepts the direct hardware access attempts with a virtual device driver. Updating the WinFrame system with the driver allows the use of dongles on Windows NT-based systems.

The following was abstracted from www.rainbow.com/ on 1/27/98.

Sentinel System Driver Information Sheet

Non-retrofit versions of our software interface (P-20.1, Spro-2.1, C-10.x, K-4.2, NS-4.23) normally communicate with the key by using direct I/O communication. Due to the fact that today's operating systems have grown more complicated and tend to use more third party drivers, direct I/O communication has become less reliable.

To alleviate this problem, we created Retrofit Code. To be considered retrofit, your interface code must be the following versions or later: P-22.1,SP-4.1Post C-10.1.1,Post K-4.2, NS-5.0. In most cases, the library files are dated 4/95 or greater for retrofit code. This retrofit code can
communicate to the I/O two ways: 1) directly or 2) through the system drivers. When installed, the
driver provides increased reliability and compatibility. Port contention issues are often solved by simply having these drivers installed.

The only time that it is absolutely necessary to use the system drivers (also called portable
drivers) is when you are using Windows NT. Windows NT has a Hardware Abstraction Layer
(HAL) that intercepts any direct I/O communication. Without the system drivers loaded, the application would not be able to communicate with the key. You may be wondering how Non-retrofit code communicates with the key in Windows NT. After all, it can only perform direct I/O. That is where our RAINPORT drivers come into play.

The RAINPORT drivers intercept the API function calls from the application, and as far as the non-retrofit code is concerned, it is still communicating direct I/O. The RAINPORT drivers in turn send the calls into Windows NT using Windows NT APIs. These Windows NT APIs are what finally allow our calls to get through the HAL.

The latest version of our system drivers is PD-5.33. The latest version of RAINPORT is 2.0.
Both files can be found on the Sentinel System Drivers page on our Website
(www.rainbow.com/) or our BBS at (714) 450-7485 (8,1,N).