OFF-LINE Registration in 2.9.4 does NOT WORK!

[Guest guest]

I tried installing my LOR S2 Software suite (2.9.4) on a computer that did not have an internet connection using the "Off-Line" option, I entered my name and registration (License code) and then clicked the off-line registration, I received an offline code, but I still had 2 or 3 blank boxes as the software did not generate enough code for all the empty boxes to place the off-line code sequence in. So I put what it gave me, double checked my name and license key to make sure they were correct, entered the code and then clicked continue, no off-line registration was forthcoming, I got an error message that my license key or name were incorrect, so I triple checked those, but there was no error there, everything was spot on 100%.

I actually had to connect the computer to the internet to get the software registered with the same name and code.

I don't know about previous versions, but at least in 2.9.4, the off-line registration just wouldn't work.

[LightORamaDan]

I just tested both of the offline-registration modules that are distributed with 2.9.4 and they both worked. But will need to understand what method was attempted here to look further into it.

Just a little review of offline registration. In order for the Light-O-Rama software to be activated by the license key, that software needs to be registered in the Light-O-Rama Database. By keeping a centralized record of the number of different machines a license is used on we prevent unauthorized use of the software.

In general when you register your LOR software, by entering the username and license key, the software will automatically use your Internet connection to contact the LOR license database and register. This is all transparent to the user.

However if your PC is not connected to the Internet then this automatic method will not work. How do you get to the LOR database? The software provides a manual method of registering. But even with this manual method, the target machine does not need to be connected to the Internet BUT there must be a machine somewhere connected to the Internet to complete the registration.

So here is how it works:

1. You go to register the offline machine and you will get to the "Register Light-O-Rama" window. In that window, there are fields where you can enter "Name:" and "License Key:" but that screen requires an Internet connection to work So at the bottom of the screen there is a link: "Need to register offline? Click Here"...

2. You click the "Click Here" on the "Register Light-O-Rama" window. A new window opens, the "Offline Registration" window. You enter your "Name" and "License Key" and click the "Show Offline Registration Key" Button.

3. The system now displays to you the eight part offline registration key. At this point you will need a machine that is online to complete the offline registration of the machine.

There are a couple of ways to do the next step. You can call Light O Rama (the telephone number to call is displayed just below the Offline Registration Key that was just generated)

The other way you can get the key is to go to another machine that is online and has Light-O-Rama installed. On that other machine you will run the Offline Registration Utility program that is found in the Light-O-Rama Folder. (The Offline Registration Utility program that yo have is the same program used by a Light-O-Rama Representative is you should make the phone call).

In any case you will now need to provide the Offline Registration Utility three things, "Name:", 8 part "License Key:" and 8 part "Offline Registration Key:"... Once you present those three fields to the Offline Registration Utility program (or a Light-O-Rama Representative who will enter that info for you", the Register button is pressed on the Offline Registration Utility Program....

This will register your offline machine in the database, however your offline machine does not know that it has been registered yet! To let the offline machine know it has been registered, the 10 part Authorization key which was generated, must be entered on the offline machine.

If you are doing it yourself, then you can just write down the 10 part authorization key and go to the offline machine and type it in. If you are on the phone with a LOR rep then they will read it to you.

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Sounds kind of complicated but it only takes a few minutes in the real world. The biggest problem is that because you need to manually enter the keys typos can be an issue. Boxes will turn red if one part is incorrect but it does not cover issues like entering the same part twice, problems with capitalization of name, etc...

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Now with that all said, In this case which way was it being done, did you call LOR with the Offline Registration Key or did you go to another machine that was online and use the Offline Registration Utility program to get the 10 part Authorization Key?

Thanks,
Dan

[Guest guest]

Didn't call anyone, just ried to do it using the off-line registration as you described.

So okay then Dan, but as you explain (if I'm understanding this correctly) no matter what, you need to be ONLINE to register the software. So I was mislead by the "offline" registration set up. As it is, the software really CAN NOT EVER BE REGISTERED TRULY OFF-LINE. I have other software that CAN be registered and has been registered offline just by entering the code it generates from the original license key and name. The offline registration utility in those programs takes the actual licensing info and creates a registered version of the software on those computers that have no internet connection at all. I don't need to make a phone call or anything else, but it still appears that even with the offline registration option in the LOR software, this DOES NOT WORK THIS WAY, am I correct in this or am I missing something?

So the LOR software really can never be registered in a true off-line state, the computer MUST and HAS TO BE CONNECTED to the Internet for this "offline registration" to work, providing I am reading your response correctly.

BTW: when I connected to the internet, the offline registration still gave me that error box, no boxes ever turned red and checked, double checked and triple checked everything to make sure I had put every thing in correctly. Usually by "copy" and paste using the mouse so I wouldn't have to manually type it in, when that didn't work, I did it manually, but got the same result. I never got enough combinations of numbers generated to fill in ALL the blank(empty) boxes that are shown. So is that normal?


Once I connected to the internet and registerd with the name and license key, everything worked as it should and the software was registered.



However, there is a question about this I need to ask, I had two laptops the software was installed on, both these laptops hard drives crashed and both are currently unusable as they neither have had the HD replaced and none are installed in them now. So I was wondering if these 2 systems are still kept alive as my having the software installed on 4 machines as opposed to only 2 desktops currently. How does the software know if it's been installed on the maximum number of machines, which I believe is 5. If systems crash like I have described and aren't useable and the LOR Software suite needs to be re-installed on these two machines, does that bump the count up and show it now being over the limit, since when the laptops were working, I had 4 total working machines with the software on it, but since those 2 have no way to remove the software from the damaged drives, if I re-install on them when I do finally get them repaired would LOR now think I have the software installed on 6 machines (which would mean that 1 machine would fail to install the software one the 5 limit would be reached? and I'd be shown as having 5 machines installed, instead of only 4 that would be the true number installed on?

[LightORamaDan]

You can install, register and run the LOR software on a PC that is not connected to the Internet and will never have an Internet connection. So yes, the Offline Registration truly allows you to register a PC while the PC is offline.

However you need to have another PC with the LOR software installed and online to complete the registration. That other PC may be another PC that you own or it can be one of the PCs at LOR (you call LOR) or a friends PC for that matter!.

Interestingly, the PC that is used to actually complete an offline registration (sort of a surrogate stand in) does not need to be registered! You could for example go to to a friend or family members house, download and install the LOR software and then use the Offline Registration Utility to complete the registration for your own machine.

Point is that to complete an offline registration, you need to get a 10 part Offline Authorization Key which you can then use to complete the registration on the offline machine. With that key you can (as you described in your post) just type it in offline and you are up and running. Unfortunately we cannot just email you the 10 part Authorization key when you purchase the software. The reason is that key is different for every machine in the world and is based on unique information about the PC that the software is being registered on... Thus if you register that software 10 times on that unique machine it only counts as one of the 5 possible activations that you get with your license.

Dan

[Guest guest]

Thanks Dan. Now I completely understand it. Good to know for future installations and re-installs in case something happens like that.

But irregardless, I would still need an internet connection to actually "finalize" the system that doesn not have an internet connection. That is where I was having the issue, thinking it would or could register it WITHOUT that option on its own.

So now I know what to do when or if I have to do that in the future.



Thanks again! Helps to know these things!



p.s. I'm sure I'm not the only one that would have brought this up, apparently no one else has attempted the off-line registration like I tried. So hopefully this will help others too that may not have been aware of how it actually does work. Thanks again, very much appreciated!

[bob]

I received an offline code, but I still had 2 or 3 blank boxes as the software did not generate enough code for all the empty boxes to place the off-line code sequence in.

Older versions of the software generated less boxes than newer versions do. Are you absolutely sure that the version of the Sequence Editor (or whatever) which you're using to generate the boxes is the same as the version of the Offline Registration Utility that you're using?

For example, if your Sequence Editor is (say) version 2.5.6, and your Offline Registration Utility is (say) version 2.9.4, then something like what you're describing would be expected (not necessarily actually version 2.5.6 - I'm making that number up off the top of my head).

Of course, the installer should have installed the same version for all of the programs, so it shouldn't be the case that the Sequence Editor and the Offline Registration Utility have different version numbers, but perhaps something went wrong with installation.

[Guest guest]

Just checked that to be sure Bob. And yes, it's the same revision, 2.9.4. So everything installed fine, just for some reason the off-line utility program generated more boxes than code for them. This was a very first time install on the machine and I used the 2.9.4 installer software I burned to a CD so I could transport it to other computers that would not usually be or have an internet connection. So it was my first time using iit so I thought it would just do everything offline without needing any further intervention from LOR or anyone else.

But I see from Dan's explaination, I would still need to make a phone call to get the software activated on such a machine that would or couldn't access the internet to fully register and get the software functioning.

[bob]

I am beginning to suspect that maybe there are two misunderstandings here.

(1) You don't necessarily need to call LOR to register a computer without internet access. You can call LOR to do that, but you don't necessarily have to do that. I'll show in a moment how you can avoid doing that.

(2) I'm guessing that perhaps the following is what you tried. Am I correct?

I think that maybe you ran the Sequence Editor (or whatever), clicked on "Register", clicked on "Register Offline", and then a window entitled "Offline Registration" popped open.

You typed your name and license key into the two boxes at its top, and then clicked on "Show Offline Registration Key".

That generated a bunch of letters and numbers - eight groups of five characters.

Under that are ten - not eight - boxes in which you're supposed to enter a bunch of letters and numbers. You put the eight groups into the first eight boxes, left the last two boxes blank, and clicked "Register".

At that point, an error message came up telling you something about it being invalid.

Is that correct?

If so, you're missing a step. The ten boxes at the bottom of that page are not where you're supposed to input the key that was generated on that page.

Rather, here's what you should do (I've bolded the "extra" parts, relative to the stuff that I described above):

• Run the Sequence Editor (or whatever).
• Click on "Register".
• Click on "Register Offline".
• Type your name.
• Type your license key.
• Click "Show Offline Registration Key".
• Write down your name, license key, and offline registration key, and bring them to another computer which has internet access, and an installed copy of LOR.
• On that other computer, run the LOR program called the "Offline Registration Utility".
• Enter your name.
• Enter your license key.
• Enter your offline registration key (that you got from the first computer).
• Click "Register".
• Another key will appear. This one will have ten -- not eight -- groups of five characters.
• Write down that key.
• Bring it back to the original computer.
• Type that key into the ten boxes on the original computer.
• Click "Register".

As noted above, you can call up LOR to register an offline computer, but all they'd be doing is running that same Offline Registration Utility program on one of their computers, and using it the same way that you would on your (other, internet-connected) computer.

[Guest guest]

Bob, that IS exactly what I did!



Now that I understand how the process works I shouldn't have that issue again if I ever need to do it that way.

So yes, you're correct, I did miss a step when I tried using the offline registration option.

I learned something new all the time how this stuff works. Thanks for the info Bob. Now I am informed on what needs to be done the next go around, if and when there is one.

BTW: registering on-line is soooo much easier and I think I will always try to do it online as opposed to offline. Nice option to have, but offline registering just requires far too much work!:cool:

[bob]

Glad to hear it's OK. The Offline Registration stuff can definitely be confusing, and error-prone; perhaps we could think about ways to make it less so.

[Guest guest]

bob wrote:

Glad to hear it's OK. The Offline Registration stuff can definitely be confusing, and error-prone; perhaps we could think about ways to make it less so.

That would be great! All the other software I can register off-line does not require a "surrogate" computer, phone calls or anything else. Just enter my name as I registered it and the license key/code and it's done.

Would be great if there was just a way you could enter the license code into the software with your name and it would register it offline without any intervention whatsoever. Only real issue I can see with this method, then the number of computers you have a license for (5) could be superceded. The only way to prevent that would either be to only register on-line or via a phone call or somehow have the software know when it has reached it's 5 computer limit, which could also pose a problem if one were to have a system/hard drive crash and have to re-install it offline as that would "bump" the count up each time. Not really sure there would really be a way to do it all in an offline fashion due to the software could be circumvented to run on more systems than your lcurrent icense would permit.

This is how some of the game, video and graphics software I have works. it bumps the count somehow and knows just how many times its been installed, if I do have a system crash or hard drive problem or software becomes corrupt for some reason and requires a re-install, once I have surpassed the limits set, then I have to usually make a phone call to the company that created the software to do a re-install. This would be the only way I can forsee the LOR software suite being able to be registered without being on-line or needing a surrogate computer until the current license limit has/was reached.

But I'm sure you folks will figure out how to do it gracefully and easily!