One man's trash... an accessory to block a parallel port

Nate Moore discovered something in a desk drawer that we both thought worth posting: if nothing else because we'd love to find out what on Earth it's for.

It's a "computer accessory" – these are literally the only words printed in its box – that looks like it fits a computer's parallel port (back when computers had them).

Front view of a computer accessory

The connector

The fun thing is that the other side of the plug is sealed!

The terminator

Maybe you're meant to pierce and wire in a cable? Or maybe it's to terminate the port to avoid electrical discharge of some kind?

If anyone has any idea what this is for, please post a comment. I'd be more than happy to ship it to anyone who would like it, but I somehow doubt anyone has a need for it. Do let me know, in case!

11 responses to “One man's trash... an accessory to block a parallel port”

  1. Pierre de la Verre Avatar
    Pierre de la Verre

    Obviously it is the first version of the paper free office. On your PC you could print and print - and no paper was used ...

    IIRC there were some "tools" which hacked the lpt1-driven licence checks. Everybody knows the dongles on lpt1, but I believe there was also something which checked the existence of a printer. Maybe this thing comes from this side of the world?

    1. Nice theories (especially the first)!

      Kean

  2. This looks like a parallel port loop back. You plug this in, run a diagnostic program and check that the port pins are working correctly. From the days when people messed with computer interfaces...

    1. That sounds very possible. Thanks, Henk!

      Kean

  3. could it be a licensing dongle perhaps? I can remember when AutoCAD had them (Way Back When!)

    1. Kean Walmsley Avatar

      No... it's a generic accessory (no software-specific branding).

      Kean

  4. Michael-John Turner Avatar
    Michael-John Turner

    It looks to me like a SCSI terminator. Although it wasn't extremely common, some machines (notably some Macs) had 25-pin SCSI connectors and they looked very much like traditional Centronics parallel ports.

    1. Kean Walmsley Avatar

      Interesting!

      Kean

  5. Well, I hate to give the "serious" answer but this is a defective piece which was probably sold in bulk as trash to a chinese company that then used these generic packages to resell it...

    1. Probably they got all kinds of defective or failed prototype/test parts and why they use a nondescriptive package with a big plastic box to fit in whatever it could.

      1. Kean Walmsley Avatar

        I can almost guarantee this is from the 80s or 90s, which makes the scenario you're proposing much less likely.

        Kean

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