USB stick
USB flash drives, also known as USB flash drives, are flash memories with a USB interface. These compact functional units are used for storing data, audio and video files. and have storage capacities of up to ten or more gigabytes. The values for the data transfer rates depend on the respective USB version, with slight differences between the transfer rates for reading in and reading out.
For data transfer, which takes place via the USB interface, the USB sticks simply have to be inserted into the USB socket. The operating system then recognizes the newly installed memory, which it displays as a folder in Windows Explorer. USB sticks have various manufacturer-specific functions and display devices. For example, a light-emitting diode can indicate the battery charge or the memory function. As a file system, USB sticks used Extended File Allocation Table( exFAT) with a 64-bit address space.
USB flash drives can be a potential security risk, as they can be used to take sensitive data out of the company and to inject it into the corporate network in an uncontrolled manner. For this reason, there are special versions with fingerprint scanners and encryption, so that in the event of loss, the finder cannot dispose of the sensitive data. In addition, there are also various software solutions with which the administrator can determine the data flow on the clients via central management.
USB sticks for mobile communications and WLANs
The possible uses of USB sticks go beyond storage. There are WLAN st icks and sticks for mobile networks such as the UMTS stick, also known as a surf stick, which supports High Speed Packet Access( HSPA), High Speed Uplink Packet Access( HSUPA) and High Speed Downlink Packet Access( HSDPA). There are also sticks for terrestrial digital TV and DVB-T reception. With a UMTS stick, you can dial into the Internet via UMTS wherever the data rate of Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line( ADSL) is too low or where no hotspot for WLAN is available.