HELP! License stopped working on a v8 install

[cejota3]

Hello All,

I have been a happy 3CX user for a number of years. In fact, because of that, our system has operated without problems for a long time, and as such, I have kept it under the "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" philosophy and it is still running version 8.0.

Now all of a sudden my license has stopped working, and it has reverted back to the "demo" mode of only allowing 4 simultaneous calls, and that is causing us BIG problems. This is a Windows XP, 32-bit installation, and I did change the network card in it a few weeks ago. Other than that, it is the EXACT same install, config, etc. that has been running for a long time.

In my scramble to get this running again, I came across this Blog entry regarding an update that happened to the licensing stuff last year:
http://www.3cx.com/blog/releases/3cx-license-activation/
I've tried the directions listed there to update the 3cxlicensewrapper.dll, but it does not work. In fact, I have the same behavior that "Andrew" describes (and then is not given any reasonable answer). When I try to reactive my valid license, all I get is the error message "license.unexperrLicense Key Activation Failed License: 61 System: 0".

Yes, I know I'm on an old version, but there is nothing broke with this, and we all know that a many version upgrade never goes without a hitch, and I don't need those added problems right now. As far a purchasing "support" for $250, I'm to the point where I'll spend that if need be, but if all someone is going to tell me is that I need to spend thousands of dollars on an update before they'll help me, that's a waste.

If I find out that my license stopped working becuase of something 3CX changed, and my only way out is to spend thousands of dollars to get their "support" and "update" to fix it, I'm going to be absolutely flabbergasted.

This is our main business phone system, and not having it work is really hurting. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
C.J.

 

[sigma1]

CJ:

Have you tried to:
- Run 3CX backup
- Uninstall 3CX
- Reinstall 3CX and restore from backup file

As I recall 3CX only reactivates if certain items change, MAC address, IPs and other HW items that remain undisclosed. Has your public IP address changed? (new ISP)?

Have you asked the partner that sold you the license to open a ticket with 3CX? I'd expect that they would do that at least.

 

[cejota3]

Sigma1,

Thank you very much for the help. No, I haven't done that yet. I did try a restore from a previous working verison, but without the uninstall/re-install. That didn't work. As far as doing the uninstall/re-install, it was a step I was hoping to not have to take, but it seems like I might be at that point.

This is actually an upgraded license that I bought directly from 3CX, so there is no reseller for me to bug! I've been trying to bug 3CX directly, but thus far they've been doing a pretty good job of ignoring me.

I was never aware that the license was depenent upon regularly connecting to 3CX, and that at anytime it could just crap out like this. I've now come across a lot of other posts complaining about this arrangmement, and I've got to agree. I'm in the software business myself, so I can fully appreciate protecting your software, but this is not an acceptable way to do it. Put out dongles or something along those lines. What happens if 3CX goes out of busines (which I really hope doesn't happen), of if their servers go down, or any number of other things that are beyond the control of a 3CX user. In those cases, our phone systems just stop working despite having spent a lot of money on a legtimate license. There is no way I can now consider this to really be a robust, reliblable, buiness-grade phone system if it can stop working like this for reasons I have no way to control.

Thanks again for your time. I do appreciate it.

C.J.

 

[sigma1]

CJ:

They are not ignoring me. The superduper, big annual meeting of the staff just started.
I'd give 3CX the benefit of the doubt on this just in case it is not related to their activation server. If this does not work, send me an e-mail at [email protected], include the license key # and I will open a ticket for you.

 

[cejota3]

Resolution

Hello Everyone,

Just thought I post a message detailing how this situation was resolved.

First, it turned out that the fundamental problem was that our v8 license is intricately tied to the MAC address of the network interface card in our server. Once I swapped out the NIC in our machine, it invalidated our license, and there was subsequently no way to reactive the license at all, even after I swapped the original NIC back in.

So in the end, I made the jump to version 11, and for that process I need to sing the praises of Charles at SigmaVoIP. He and his company were FANTASTIC, and I’d highly recommend them. Heck, my system probably would still not be working if it wasn’t for them. Yes, I know I was on a very old version, but as I said in my original post, it had been working just fine for years, so out-of-sight, out of mind.

The upgrade from version 8 to 11 was obviously a big jump. I’m sure there may be some posts about how to do it, but it is not for the faint of heart. Basically you need to take your settings via a backup and rev them through each of the version upgrades. Again, this is where Charles and SigmaVoIP were great. They handled all of that, and did it quickly.

Once on the version 11, there were a few tweaks to get it all ship-shape, but overall nothing too crazy. Since then our phone system has running great. Do I notice it being any better than the version 8 from when I started? That’s tough to say, but it is definitely much more secure, which is very important, and has a great deal more features that I have yet to fully explore.

Once again, thanks to SigmaVoIP!

C.J.

 

[sigma1]

CJ, It was my pleasure.

To be specific, changes of IP address, MAC and other parameters will prompt a license reactivation. V11 is a major upgrade and will provide you with many nifty features and a great deal of added security. If you do swap anything always check your license tab to make sure that it did not revert to FREE, if so simply reactivate the license by entering the key number and registrant.