TurboActivate license questions

1) Can a serial be created with an infinite number of activations? That is, can we provide our end-users an infinite-use serial which isn't rendered unusable after a certain number of activations? I already tried entering a 0 and -1 into the number of activations. Didn't work.

No this isn't possible -- product keys must have a finite number of activations. You can always change the number later (increasing and decreasing). I'm not sure I understand why you'd need infinite activations. Can you give me an example?

2) Is it possible for a license to be lost? For instance, if the OS (with an active install) crashes and needs to be reinstalled, will the License be lost, or will the user still be able to reinstall the build on that particular machine? If the License is lost for the user, what is LimeLM's suggestion for this situation.

The customer will be able to reactivate on the same machine if they reinstall Windows. If the customer's computer is stolen/lost/exploded/etc. then you can deactivate the machine in the LimeLM dashboard and the customer will be able to activate on their new computer.

3) Did I find a bug or is this intended? - I noticed that, after a serial is entered on a particular machine, it appears that I don't have to enter the serial again, even after the application is deactivated. I can re-activate by entering random garbage into the key, and it works as long as the key isn't blank.

This isn't a bug. When you call the "Deactivate()" function without telling it to delete the product key then TurboActivate leaves the product key on the computer. This allows the customer to reactivate a computer without needing to re-enter their product key.

When you call CheckAndSavePKey again with garbage, CheckAndSavePKey rejects it but leaves the old (and valid) product key untouched.

To deactivate & delete the product key then call the Deactivate function with the "erasePkey" parameter set to true. In Adobe AIR that looks like this:

ta.Deactivate(true);

Does this make sense?

I have an additional question to add.

4) Is it possible to delete a serial in the dashboard? Especially for testing purposes, I've run into a problem where I've already got the max licenses allocated to my account type for the free trial. Is there no way around this other than to upgrade? I haven't got a working payment process yet, so I won't be able to convince the client to take the plunge to a paid account.

Thanks, Wyatt, for your timely responses. On a Saturday, no less!

Wyatt wrote:> No this isn't possible -- product keys must have a finite number of activations.> You can always change the number later (increasing and decreasing). I'm not sure> I understand why you'd need infinite activations. Can you give me an example?

Initially our client did not ask for licensing so much as just simple offline serial protection (enter a serial key to complete the installation wizard). I was not able to find an off-the-shelf solution to that problem, but I found LimeLM while searching for it. Technically, an infinite-license serial would be equivalent to what my client has requested. I do prefer having finite licenses per serial myself (more robust protection by far), so I am in the process of attempting to persuade my client that this is better. But I wanted to know what my options were.

Wyatt wrote:> The customer will be able to reactivate on the same machine if they reinstall Windows.> If the customer's computer is stolen/lost/exploded/etc. then you can deactivate> the machine in the LimeLM dashboard and the customer will be able to activate on> their new computer.

Scary thing is, I have accidentally set a laptop on fire. The CPU fan quit and the machine started smoking. Yikes!.But seriously, that's very good news, and will help persuade our client to (1) above.

Wyatt wrote:> To deactivate & delete the product key then call the Deactivate function with the> "erasePkey" parameter set to true. In Adobe AIR that looks like this:> > Code: Select all> ta.Deactivate(true);

That's very useful. I must have missed that in the sample code. It's in flex (I think) and I'm a Flash CSX developer, so I had to build a TurboActivatae demo for myself. Thanks for this!

Chris

4) Is it possible to delete a serial in the dashboard? Especially for testing purposes, I've run into a problem where I've already got the max licenses allocated to my account type for the free trial. Is there no way around this other than to upgrade? I haven't got a working payment process yet, so I won't be able to convince the client to take the plunge to a paid account.

You can delete product keys on the paying plans. If you want I can delete the product keys in your free plan. Do you want me to do this?

I do prefer having finite licenses per serial myself (more robust protection by far), so I am in the process of attempting to persuade my client that this is better. But I wanted to know what my options were.

Well, you can always use just the serial-number protection part of TurboActivate. That is, just the CheckAndSavePKey() and IsProductKeyValid() function. However, hardware locked licensing does increase revenue over serial-only protection. This is why we recommend using the activation functions.