Re: MS Project Academic Edition
From: Steve House (sjhouse.remove.this_at_to.send.hotmail.com)
Date: 07/31/04
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Date: Sat, 31 Jul 2004 09:50:19 -0400
Yes, you can do that through a firewall without any problem as it is just
the normal exchange of information between two computers talking on the Net,
not really any different from what happens when you browse to any web site.
It only needs the Internet at the time the installation is activated, it's a
one-shot deal unless you do something like reformatting the hard drive that
blows away the keyfile.
The question was asked specifically about the evaluation version of Project
and that version can only be activated via the Internet, For the regular
retail versions there is an alternate telephone activation procedure via an
800 number to use when installing on computers that aren't or can't be
connected to the Net. The phone procedure can also be used to reset the
activitions to allow you to uninstall your software from one computer and
move it on another, but last time I checked that option is not available for
the free evaluation version.
For what it's worth, limiting activation of an evaluation copy to only one
box just doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Seems like from a marketing
standpoint, if one guy in an organization ordered a copy you'd actually WANT
him to circulate it to as many different co-workers desktops as he can!
Free advertising and the result might be selling 100 licenses instead of
just one or two! After all, it times out so it's not like wide distribution
will cut into sales of the retail version. But then, no one asked me ...
-- Steve House [MVP] MS Project Trainer/Consultant Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs "MPR" <MPR@none.invalid> wrote in message news:410B7918.4436A51F@none.invalid... > Wow. You can do all that through a firewall? What if your PC is not hooked up > to the Internet? My work PC is deliberately not connected to the Net because of > the nature of the work I do. > > Steve House wrote: > > > As far as I know, the way activation works is by registering the > > installation in a database at Microsoft. Activation requires that you have > > a live internet connection running. Each CD is serialized. When you > > activate, the process first does a "hash" of things like your cpu, bios, > > hard drive, etc serials numbers, memory configuration, etc - details not > > wholly public - to create a code to uniquely identifys that specific box. > > Then it logs onto the MS activation server and checks to see if that CD > > serial number has been activated before. If it has not, the server logs the > > CD serial and the CPU's identifier hash associated with it in this > > installation and returns a key file to unlock the software. Failure to get > > a key causes the software to shut down to read only mode after I think it's > > 5 uses with the eval copy. If the server finds the CD serial *has* been > > registered before, it compares the CPU hash with the one on file - if > > they're the same it knows this is a reinstall on the same box and issues a > > fresh copy of the key. But if the CPU hashes *don't* match it knows you're > > trying to install on a new/2nd CPU which is a violation of the license and > > refuses to reissue the unlock key. Project checks each time it starts to > > see if it has the key and I'm pretty sure it also checks to see if it's the > > key issued to the box it's running on this startup. > > > >
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