I've had a nagging problem with a customer supporting LimeLM with disconnected/offline activation.
It seems that the lost license involves Windows Update that applies some patch or update and then the systems is restarted. In some cases, not all, the offline license is no longer valid.
This latest release has helped a little bit, but not completely. It seems there are some conditions that cause a lost license.
Any idea what could be the root cause or how I can mitigate this issue (without an active connection)?
It's hard to say. Do you have a product key where they were activated, they "got deactivated", and then they activated again?
My guess is that they're disabling network adapters. Just a guess, though. I need much more information to tell you for sure.
Yes - I've been using the same key. Its a manual activation so I've been deactivating the license, doing the manual activation and sending the response file. Would you recommend trying a new key?
Since the system is setup in a virtual environment, its likely that the network adapter is virtual also and it gets disabled on a reboot (my hunch).
Ohhh, OK. It's a VM. That's why this is happening. For a virtual machine there are no assurances that the fingerprint will stay the same between reboots. In fact, on Amazon VMs it's all but guaranteed that on every reboot the hardware fingerprint will be different. Why? Because the VM instances are actually running on different computers for every reboot.
The solution, use TurboFloat: https://wyday.com/limelm/help/vm-hypervisor-licensing/
It handles cases like this.
LMpiot123Hi,
I just want to comment that I started selling my software without online check as well but unfortunately the licenses will get lost for myriad of reasons, the most popular ones:
1)they upgrade Windows2)they lose their computers3)they change the hardware without de-activating first4)they disable network adapters5)they "need to format their computer"
I think it's very valuable to have checks because then you can deactivate for them even if that gives them free 7 to 14 days ride on deactivated computer (as many days as you specify between checks) and it really does make life easier.I am of course can't be sure it's an even an option for you but I would highly recommend introducing a periodic check for that reason.
>> "1)they upgrade Windows"
In TurboActivate 3.x and lower, this will not cause TurboActivate to see the computer as different. Only if they simultaneously change other things on the computer (like replacing the harddrive) will TurboActivate see the computer as different.
In TurboActivate 4.x and above, this will not cause TurboActivate to see the computer as different (even if they also simultaneously replace the harddrive).
>> "2)they lose their computers"
There's nothing you can do about that, besides just deactivating their existing activation in LimeLM so they can activate their new computer. A different computer is a different computer.
>> "3)they change the hardware without de-activating first"
TurboActivate 3.x has fuzzy hardware fingerprint matching, so common hardware changes (new harddrive, memory, etc.) won't cause TurboActivate to see the computer as different.
TurboActivate 4.x has vastly improved fuzzy hardware fingerprint matching, so more changes can be made without TurboActivate seeing the computer as different.
>> "4)they disable network adapters"
We still stand by that there's nothing to be gained by disabling network adapters (and it's impossible to read network adapter information when the adapter is disabled).
That being said, TurboActivate 4.x and above handles this wide-spread, "interesting" user-behavior behavior.
>> "5)they "need to format their computer""
If it's the same computer, then TurboActivate will see it as the same computer. My guess is when a customer says they "just reformatted their computer" and TurboActivate sees the computer as different, then that's not actually the case. They're either using your app on a separate computer, or they've changed so many components on their existing computer that TurboActivate rightly sees it as a different computer.
LMpiot123>>In TurboActivate 3.x and lower, this will not cause TurboActivate to see the computer as different. Only if they simultaneously change other things on the computer (like replacing the harddrive) will TurboActivate see the computer as different.
My experience is that for a lot of people TurboActivate stops working after they upgrade to Windows 10.I of course can't be sure what they are doing exactly but most of my customers aren't exactly computer experts so they just click "upgrade" once Windows 7 prompts them.
>>TurboActivate 3.x has fuzzy hardware fingerprint matching, so common hardware changes (new harddrive, memory, etc.) won't cause TurboActivate to see the computer as different.
>>TurboActivate 4.x has vastly improved fuzzy hardware fingerprint matching, so more changes can be made without TurboActivate seeing the computer as different.
4.x is still not released, right? (I am using the one from about March 2015). Just today I had someone adding a RAM dime and it was enough to fingerprint not match. Again, maybe they did something else as well as you can never be sure. I am just relying on self-reports 🙂Anyway, I think making the algorithm more forgiving so to speak is quite important feature so I am happy you are improving it.
>>We still stand by that there's nothing to be gained by disabling network adapters (and it's impossible to read network adapter information when the adapter is disabled).
>>That being said, TurboActivate 4.x and above handles this wide-spread, "interesting" user-behavior behavior.
They claim that new connection won't work until they click "disconnect" and that apparently by default disables network adapters. One of my users was able to find some 3rd party software which allowed him to keep all the adapters active and switch connections and that in fact keeps the license working.It just seems a lot of people are somehow falling into the use pattern of disabling those adapters. Again, most of them aren't computer experts to put it mildly so they just click icons in Windows they think they need to click and it stops working for them 🙂
>>If it's the same computer, then TurboActivate will see it as the same computer. My guess is when a customer says they "just reformatted their computer" and TurboActivate sees the computer as different, then that's not actually the case.
Thanks for that information. I long suspected that might be the case. On the other hand they pay serious money for my software so I try to be forgiving. This is especially strange because I explicitly allow them deactivate the license from the software to move it (with limited number of deactivations most often).
