.

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I had Komplete 2 installed on Desktop and laptop with no problem. :-) Their management program is actually pretty cool, keeps you registered/unlocked/updated.

ORIGINAL: garrigus

Hi Mike,

As far as I know, NI allows two installations. Then if you want to install again, you need to deactivate one of the current installations. You may want to confirm with them first.

It's changed a little, Scott. As you state down farther, the new licensing allows you three machines. However, you can't deactivate any of the registrations yourself any more; that's taken care of by the Service Center. And, because of the way we all upgrade our machines and the like, NI doesn't stick to the three machines very strictly as long as you don't go overboard.

As a side note, you can't deregister your products by yourself any more; all deregistering is done by NI.

Your NI forum moderator,
ew

It's changed a little, Scott. As you state down farther, the new licensing allows you three machines.

Do you know if this is for all the products (ie Absynth)?

As a side note, you can't deregister your products by yourself any more; all deregistering is done by NI.

I REALLY dont get the "deregistration" either. If I loose a harddrive or some piece of hardware I'm screwed? An once "deregistered" its "forever" ?

I've been upgrading a machine with a new x2 processor - of course after I plop in the processor it game me a new machine ID - but I didnt "unregister anything" because if I DID and it was the same ID then I am TOTALLY screwed because once "unregistered" its forever right? So now I have used up 2 instances, but I want to re-install my WinXP from scratch (should have done that the FIRST TIME but live and learn). So now what ? Unregister, what if I have the same ID? What if I get a new ID ? Bottom line a paying customer should not have to worry about this crap .... (sorry for the rant).

This is ONE MAJOR reason I have SONAR, P5, Dimension, Rapture. The registration (oh, and also they are great pieces of software

I F-ing HATE challenge response.....

ew's right. And personally, I think the new NI Service Center is great. I've had no problems registering, activating or getting new authorizations. And I am constantly upgrading to newer boxes/MOBOs. You should have no problem.

ORIGINAL: cityrat

Thanks - I'll just give it a try. Have you ever "deregistered"?

If you use the Service Center, you don't have to deactivate, as I said earlier; your activations/deactivations are taken care of automatically.

The way I stated it earlier could be confusing; I should have said deactivating instead of deregistering. The only time you deregister is if you're selling the product; that you have to go through NI support for.

ew

I think the new NI Service Center is great. I've had no problems registering, activating or getting new authorizations.

I had problems in the past, but NI's Service Center works very well.

Ah... the Vista issue. See if there's any updated modem/network drivers for your machine...

ew

To me the issue is more around the re-registration requirements. Re-registering a car every time you have to change a tyre would probably result in a consumer revolt pretty quickly. Why do we put up with it with software?

My system disk went AWOL a while ago. I replaced it with an identical disk - same manufacturer, same model, same everything. Not good enough! A significant part of the recovery was re-registering everything again.

My exposure to NI is just with one of those products which use their sampler engine. Enough to turn me off. I have one of the Edirol HQ synths. Had to dig up the CD regularly because it just wont believe I paid for it for any length of time. Stopped using it now.

I have no problem with registering. It's re-registering whenever you do a bit of renovation that sucks.

I know that it's a dirty word around here, but I actually prefer a USB dongle to challenge/response. There are pros and cons to both methods. If I lost my dongle right now I would be out about a grand. Period. That's the con I worry most about with a dongle. On the other hand, I have a copy of Wizooverb that is no longer supported by the company that sold it, and I wonder if I will be able to activate it in a couple of years from now when I build a new system. Ditto for much of the other challenge/response software that I have. With the dongle, I never have to worry about what will happen to my license when I build a new system, but I may lose everything by simply misplacing it. It stinks, iether way. This is one of the biggest reasons that I have been migrating to Cakewalk software. No challenge/response. No dongle. No worries.

If you use the Service Center, you don't have to deactivate, as I said earlier; your activations/deactivations are taken care of automatically.

Thanks for the help - I ran the offline service center and was able to get a new machine ID so I'm ok until the next time I change some piece of hardware in my computer.

But how do I deactivate if I don't have the system intact anymore? THATS my big issue is that I didn't deactivate because I never know if I will get a new machine ID. This time I did, but others I didn't. And different programs are, well, different. Sibelius G7 for example didn't change a machine ID with a x2 processor but NI Absynth DID so you can see my confusion.

Anyway - hopefully NI will be lenient if I request another....


BTW - if I can do an offline activation with HTML file and NAF file. What does "deactivation" do for NI? Couldnt I technically reuse the NAF to just re-authorize? Or does it tie the deactivation to some BASE ID that even slight changes are still deactivated. I hate this stuff....

Hello,

"Anyway - hopefully NI will be lenient if I request another...."

I'm jumping back in because yesterday I installed 3 products that required the NI Service Center, Battery 3, Garritan Person Orchestra (Kontact) and Garritan Jazz and Big Band (Kontact). Each app was installed separately and then authorized.

First, there is no challenge/response anymore, no keys to paste. You run the Service Center app and it knows what products are installed on the machine and transmits this information to your on-line account. Authorization is automatic. And, as I mentioned above I have Battery 3 on 3 different DAWs and when I installed it for the 3rd time yesterday the Service Center automatically authorized the install.

"How do people with no access to the www use their products?" Internet access has become mandatory for many companies' software authorization. "...My ISP broke...and took 16days to fix it..." Tough luck. I have an internet-based business my e-mail (but not my web site) was down for 4 hours in the morning about a month ago. I was ready to change providers! They were quite unapologetic too. "I'm not impressed with NI at all..." I started using Battery back in 2000. My then current drum machine was an Alessis DM-Pro (a $700.00 rack mount unit with 1,600 delicious percussion sounds). After using Battery, I never turned the DM-Pro on again, sold the DM-Pro on E-bay some time ago. You problem wasn't with NI, it was with your ISP. Hope you've got it sorted out now.

GK

PS.: I forgot to mention, if you don't like the way NI does business now, you would have really hit the ceiling from dealing with them back in 2000 when I first purchases Battery and B4. At that time they had ONE customer service/tech support rep for all of the U.S. LOL.

First, there is no challenge/response anymore, no keys to paste. You run the Service Center app and it knows what products are installed on the machine and transmits this information to your on-line account.

umm... that EXACTLY is challenge response. My issue isn't with internet access or anything. It's with changing a piece of hardware and MAYBE having a new machine ID generated with another requirement for challenge response. And, if you dont "deactivate" (for instance if your MB, or HD goes south) you have "used" one of your keys.

But like I said - haven't had to beg NI for a new key "YET" and I love Absynth.

ORIGINAL: DarinBad

I know that it's a dirty word around here, but I actually prefer a USB dongle to challenge/response. There are pros and cons to both methods. If I lost my dongle right now I would be out about a grand. Period. That's the con I worry most about with a dongle. On the other hand, I have a copy of Wizooverb that is no longer supported by the company that sold it, and I wonder if I will be able to activate it in a couple of years from now when I build a new system. Ditto for much of the other challenge/response software that I have. With the dongle, I never have to worry about what will happen to my license when I build a new system, but I may lose everything by simply misplacing it. It stinks, iether way. This is one of the biggest reasons that I have been migrating to Cakewalk software. No challenge/response. No dongle. No worries.

For the same reason your software that is currently running may not work when you upgrade your computer in a couple of years, your dongle may not work. Provided the digital information does not fail or get corrupted (it is just a flash drive more or less), the company that wrote the encryption may not be around. Or, more likely, on this hypothetical machine, you'll be updating your OS and the dongle driver may no longer be compatible, so you'll have to go hunting for updates & driver nevertheless. How long before computers don't even have USB1.0 compatible ports? 5 years? 10? And, as you said, losing it is a bummer.

PACE iLok faults can be triggered by software/hardware changes you could make on your machine tonight, let alone 2 years from now. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that one of the biggest failings of any DRM system is that they are invariably *not* future proof. For them to be effective they have to continually be maintained to maintain effectiveness. Dongles do not ensure against obsolescence, the insure that you don't "loan" your copy out to your "friends." As in, insurance for the company.

Absolutely companies need to keep track of how many users are out there - and I will support those companies that to it with the least possible hoop-jumping and margin for error for me. But even Cakewalk has an online registration in addition to your serial number. Of course, I like Cakewalk and I like their software so it doesn't bother me. 5 years hence, who knows, I may not be able to "activate" the Sonar 7.0 I'm running today. Or Audio Damage or NI or... et cetera.

While I find DRM to be a digital folly, I fully see the need for online registrations and activations. And, honestly, we're not talking about Verizon or GE here - these are small companies with a comparitively small profit margin that count on the revenues from their products. They do not have huge corprorate accounts like say, Adobe or Digi, to offset the rampant piracy of their software. Having some sort of digital signing or registration in place cuts down enormously on casual piracy - friends passing around software - Installing, say, iZotope software on a buddy's laptop. This works, and unless you go open source there is little way around it if you want to use a certain level of product.

But let's not kid ourselves, there's a lot of variables for error on a digital system, and, well (to set of the vulgar-filter), **** happens. With any software, at some point you may just be SOoL. This is why we're all liscencing software not buying it, right? What do you think all those EULA are about?

Enjoy the software you have now; support the companies that do this without making you feel like a dupe (cough, Waves) for doing so; and try to avoid software/hardware that's prone to failure.

For what it's worth, I like the NI interface - it's simple even on a computer that's not connected to the internet. I've never had any problems with Cakewalk either.

The Service Center's much more tolerant of upgrading bits and pieces than the Registration Tool was; it takes more things into account for the system ID

That's cool - NI has been good so far. And like I said I really like their product so it's been worth it.