carl
Waves stopped using iLok over a year ago, now people moan & groan about their License Center.

Which I found MOST PLEASANT.  I wish more followed that design.
You could install your licenses to your hard drive or to a USB drive.  If you were re-doing your machine
you could send your licenses to the Cloud, then bring them back when done.

It even had a "recover" feature, even though you could only do it once a year...

It was a great thing to me...but I'm Wave-less now...

I've had about 10 eLicense dongles as well as two iLoks.
Out of all those, I've only had an issue with one (an eLicense dongle).
The eLicense dongle bit-the-dust (stopped working)... and my SX-3 license went with it.
 
Otherwise, none of the dongles have been a problem.
Using iLok2 and eLicense manager applications is equally easy.
If you want to run specific software/plugins, I wouldn't let the dongle alone deter you.
 
 

Jim Roseberry
If you want to run specific software/plugins, I wouldn't let the dongle alone deter you.

Agreed. There's a lot to be gained from some of those tools that are dongled up.

I haven't had any issues with iLok.

carl
Waves stopped using iLok over a year ago, now people moan & groan about their License Center.

No issues here with Waves new License Center. Much preferred to the ilok dongle.
 
 

In my Steinberg UR44, I got an e-license and the manual warns you NOT to lose it, as effectively, that's what you bought, according to Steinberg...  the interface was free, you just bought the little USB thingie that lights up.
If I don't have it inserted, whenever I fire up X3, it asks me where my Steinberg effects are (that are in the interface), so I just let it live in a USB port now.  I prefer the auth/registration setup best, but this seems to work ok.  It allows for using on other machines, apparently as the reasoning behind this method

I've got my first ilock 1 several years ago free with my first EWQL. Picked up an ilock2 reduced a few months ago. Since they replaced the online system with the installed license center. I love it now. As far as losing your licenses, a friend of mine had one of his kids break his ilock last year. He didn't have that 0 downtime so he had to mail his in to them to get a new one with the licenses restored. He had his new ilock in 2 days. Not sure about eLicenser but I would go with ilock mostly because chances are the next plug you want, requiring a dongle, is more likely to be ilock

My i-lok experiences have been quite good.

Older i-lok works no prob.

Second and new i-lok2 died in guarantee period and all expenses were paid by Pace/i-lok. (If I remember correctly - should check credit card bill!!!!) New one works great.

my main tip is to never mix 32bit and 64bit installers.


i-licenser question. My copy of wavelab has installed a license on my computer. Can this be moved? ie removed from old computer to new laptop?

I reluctantly went with iLok2 maybe a couple of years ago and it hasn't been much of a problem at all other than having to look up my user name and password.

I have purchased XILS4 and decided on the eLicenser option because it was include free in the introductory offer. My main issue with dongles is having to buy them.
 
 Its not uncommon to have at least two Hasp or Sentinel dongles attached to my work laptop and I dont find it an issue.