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Perpetual Licenses disappear and Activation server removed

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wizardsit

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We have a 3CX Small Business Edition 8SC Version 11 on perpetual licensing who had their license disappear/removed a few days ago after a restart. This took some time to find as 3CX had some strange behavior, incoming lines not working and call routing not working or going in circles, after some time troubleshooting we have tracked it down to the License, well we hope.

No worries, we will just apply the license and all will be well, or so we thought. License server is unreachable errors, check for updates perhaps? No also server is unavailable errors. Ok checked forums and tried several suggested options including changing DNS to 8.8.8.8. So we are stuck with a lifetime license which has disappeared/expired and that cannot be activated.

1st port of call was the distributor we purchased the license from, well that was a waste of time as they no longer distribute 3CX products and are not interested in even talking to me. 3CX have no contact details but after some digging referred me to another Distributor who also won't talk to me as my purchase was not though them but did give me someone at 3CX to email who was the only person to help with perpetual licensing. No reply was ever received and 3CX has been down 3 days now

Options?


1. 3CX support at $75 per call - Well Product support can only be offered on the current version. That is of no help as this is a perpetual license for v11, we are happy with it and don't want any new features, just what we paid for.
We don't need actual support, it worked just fine before the license disappeared, just the activation server seems to be offline/discontinued, even though we have a perpetual license, we can support the program and have backups etc.

2.Get hold of someone to speak to about the license server for perpetual licenses, is it down, was the license removed to force an upgrade, this is proving difficult as no-one get back to you and Distributor wants nothing to do with you as they have cut ties with 3CX. Emails to 3CX requesting some form of explanation are ignored/go missing.

3. Pay yearly and upgrade to v15.5, this seems to be the only option as per the forum and limited info we have gained from talking to others. We have started this process, backup upgrade ver 12, 12.5 to 14 (same license issues) but when reaching v14 it shows 3CX does not support the SIP provider Engine. All lines are though Engine and until we got to v14 there has been no mention of this.

I understand that if you want constant upgrades to the new version you need to pay for them BUT when I buy Windows 7, the license key keeps working, yes I don't get Windows 10 for free but they also don't disable my software and prevent me from reactivating it, they also will assist with re-activation's if there are problems. Same if I bought Office 2007, Photoshop etc. I can still use them but not get the new versions for free.

Where to from here? 3CX system is down and nowhere to turn.
 
Just because 3CX doesn't support the provider doesn't mean it won't work. If it worked in v11 it should still work. Keep doing the upgrade.
 
I have and when I get to v14 it says SIP provider not supported, please recreate. There is no options as you have a short list of providers to choose from and they are not on there. They appear to be preconfigured for approved providers only so how do I get around that?
 
Ok got around that and voice in and out working but still no license servers available errors, I have 8.8.8.8 as DNS server as suggested elsewhere, so pretty much the same issue as with v11
 
3CX has made a herculean effort to let partners and customers know that the 3CX activation servers will stop working for older versions of 3CX as of October 14th. You must upgrade to 15.5 SP6 to activate.

As long as your server doesn't require reactivation you should be fine, but... remember changing a NIC MAC address or moving your 3CX to a different server will force a reactivation and it will fail to activate.

My understanding is that 3CX had to update their certificates on the activation servers for security reasons and this caused an incompatibility with older versions of 3CX.

At this point, your only option is to upgrade to 3CX 15.5 SP6.

If you no longer have a 3CX Partner to assist you with getting your key upgraded, you can find a new 3CX partner here:

https://www.3cx.com/ordering/find-reseller/

Once you have selected a new 3CX Partner, they can assist you with getting them assigned as your partner of record and help with getting your key upgraded to 15.5 SP6.
 
I should also point out that there is a specific process of upgrading from 11 to 15.5. Many people have assumed that they have to activate their 3CX server at each step in the upgrade process (v11 to v12 for example). That is not the case, and as mentioned will not work until your server is at 15.5 SP6. So, upgrade from version to version and don't attempt to activate until you get up to 15.5.SP6.
 
"remember changing a NIC MAC address or moving your 3CX to a different server will force a reactivation and it will fail to activate."

None of this has happened, machine was turned off while electrical work was carried out in the building. System turned back on and 3cx was not working. Restoring to previous version of files made no difference, even system restore to a day before and even a week before did not help as 3cx booted up with no license. There have been other reports of this in the forums.
 
Hello @wizardsit

There are many reasons that could cause a system to re-activate not only a MAC address change. And if the system tries to re-activate it will revert to free as the activation server will no longer authenticate previous version due to a certificate change. That is why maintenance for keys activated on previous version has been extended until the end of the month so everybody can update to the latest version. Your licence will activate once you upgrade to V15.5 sp6. If you face any issues with activation please let us know.
You can also rebuild your voip provider using the Generic provider template
 
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