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Licensing System |
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| Our product licensing
system is based on a "license key". To receive a license key for
your computer, you normally use the program you wish to license to
make a license request. You will then receive your license key by
email, and you will copy and paste that license key into the
Licensing dialog in the program.
Our product
licensing system
allows you to transfer licenses from one computer to another via
floppy disk, network, email or any other means you have to transfer
a small file from one computer to another.
You can store any number of licenses on one
computer and move them around when needed. The transfer
process takes only minutes and can be done an unlimited
number of times.
The following sections give answers
to common questions about our licensing system.
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| What
happens if my hard disk fails and I lose my license? |
If your hard disk fails,
then you will need a replacement license. This will be a very rare
occurrence. When (and if) it does happen, we will replace the lost
license. We are not concerned about clients doing this to try to get
extra licenses, because it would soon be evident that that client is
not telling the truth.
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| Will
my installed licenses be affected when I install a free GeoLab
update? |
No. When you download and
install any free GeoLab update, your current license will not be
affected. The only time your current license would be affected, is
when you download and install a major update, in which case you
should purchase the upgrade when you perform the installation. Note
that you can also re-install the same version of GeoLab without
affecting the current license on your computer.
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| How do
I transfer a license from one computer to the other? |
One or more licenses can be
transferred from a source computer (a licensed computer from which
one or more licenses will be taken) to a destination computer (a
licensed or unlicensed computer to receive the licenses), as long as
GeoLab is installed on both computers. The license transfer
procedure is performed using a license transfer file
("transfer.dat"). The steps are as follows:
1 - At the destination computer, click the Help\Licensing menu item,
then click the License Transfers button on the Licensing dialog, and
then click the Step 1: Create Transfer File in the Transfer
License(s) dialog to create the license transfer file
("transfer.dat"). This file will be created in GeoLab’s "Start
in" folder (you can determine this setting by right-clicking the GeoLab
shortcut you are using and selecting Properties).
2 - Move the file transfer.dat created in the previous step to
the "Start in" folder of the source computer, run GeoLab on that
computer, and select the Help\Licensing menu item.
3 - On the Licensing dialog, click the License Transfers button,
select the number of licenses you want to transfer out, and click
the Step 4: Transfer License(s) Out button.
4 - Move the modified transfer.dat file back to GeoLab’s "Start in"
folder on the destination computer, and run GeoLab. Click the
Help/Licensing menu item, click the Licensing button, and then click
the License Transfers button. A dialog will be displayed to let you
know the result of loading the license(s) from the transfer file.
Important: You must place the transfer.dat file in GeoLab's
"Start in" folder before you click the Help/Licensing menu item.
Note that the transfer.dat file is very small and can easily be
moved between computers over a LAN, by email, or on a diskette.
Licenses transfers can therefore be easily made between computers in
the same room, or around the world.
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| How do
I request my license if I have no Internet connection? |
If you have no Internet
connection on the computer you wish to license, you can do the
following to make your license request:
- Install GeoLab on your computer;
- Run GeoLab, and select the
Help/Licensing menu command, which will bring up the Licensing
dialog;
- Click the Licensing button at
the bottom of the dialog (or click the "Online licensing" tab if
you have a newer version of GeoLab);
- Click the blue link "Browse to
the BitWise Ideas Secure License Update web site..." (your browser
should come up even though you don't have an Internet connection);
- In the browser's address bar,
you should see the web address that GeoLab was trying to reach,
and it should appear similar to the following link:
"http://www.BitWiseIdeas.com/Products/GeoLab/glmenu.asp?rk=6520BE2DE6...";
- Select the entire link
(double-click it to select it all) and copy it (hold the <Ctrl>
key down and press the "C" key);
- Close GeoLab, create a new text
file on your Windows desktop, open that file, paste the
copied link into the file (hold <Ctrl> and press the "V" key), and
save the revised file;
- Close the new text file and copy
it to a floppy diskette.
At this point you should have a
floppy diskette containing the text file you just created. You can
now take that diskette to a computer with an Internet connection and
email the text file to us, or you can send the diskette to us by
regular mail (see our
Contact Us page for addresses).
When you receive your file back
from us it will contain your license key. You must then copy that
file back to your computer to be licensed, and paste the license key
into the Licensing dialog below the blue link mentioned above.
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| Does
GeoLab still support the use of the old dongle? |
| We have discontinued use of
the dongle because it was simply causing too many problems, and was
not reliable. The new Internet-friendly licensing system is more
reliable, and much more flexible for such things as delivering
licenses to clients quickly, and for clients' transferring licenses
from office to office, or country to country. The license transfer
procedure is fairly simple and very reliable. Once you make a
transfer or two, there is very little chance of losing a license. If
a license is lost when making a transfer, we will replace it. The
fact is that very few of our clients have had problems with license
transfers. Note that the new
licensing system allows us to replace a license over the Internet,
whereas replacing a dongle had to be done by shipping the dongle by
regular mail or courier causing delays of several days.
Also note that the dongle was not fool-proof. For example, if a
client claimed to have dropped the dongle in a river and it could
not be recovered, how would the client 'prove' he lost it? He
couldn't. The fact that our clients are honest, professional people
helps the system to work well. We designed the system to be as
convenient as possible for our clients, and we believe it is a vast
improvement over the dongle.
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| Will I
still be able to use GeoLab on my other computers and on my laptops
in the field? |
Yes. The new licensing
system we are using with GeoLab 2001 will allow you to transfer
licenses from one computer to another via floppy disk, network,
email or any other means you have to transfer a small file from one
computer to another.
You will be able to store any number of licenses on one computer and
move them around when needed. The transfer process takes only
minutes and can be done an unlimited number of times.
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| How do
I ensure my license doesn't get lost due to a bad floppy disk? |
When you are moving the
transfer file from the computer in which you wish to transfer
licenses from, copy the file instead of moving it. In the rare case
that the file becomes damaged before you have moved it to the
destination computer you will still have a backup copy of the
transfer file.
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