Transferring license to a dongle?

[jasona]

Hey guys,

I just recently purchased a hardware dongle so i could move my Maya license around from different workstations. Problem is, Alias just sent me the dongle and that

[gmask]

There should be a flexid printed on the dongle or that was included with it.. Alias has to generate an activiation key based on it.

[jasona]

yeah there is a flexid printed on the back side of it. but it doesn't start with the MCW.... blah blah serial number, so will this work with the software setup?

[gmask]

Flexid's are actually fairly short and do not start with MCW.. alias uses the flexid to create an encrytpion that is stored in your license.dat in the flexlm folder. At any rate without contacting Alias you will not beable to use the dongle to run the software.

[jasona]

sigh

Ok guess I'll have to wait 'till Monday then... Thanks gmask

[gmask]

Did you buy the dongle directly from Alias or from a reseller?

[jasona]

I bought it directly from Alias.

I started with an email to Alias. The rep I'm corresponding with is Paul Mengas, he's a nice fellow. He referred me to a local reseller here in Portland (Acuity Inc). Acuity was pretty forward in telling me that they weren't too enthused about the whole thing 'cause they were selling me the dongle at cost (essentially they weren't getting anything out of it). Also I had some license transfer issues to work out as well, and that didn't make them feel any more enthused about me as a customer. Well they really didn't want to deal with it, so they referred me back to the Alias rep I started with! errrrrr

So I wrote a lengthy email to Alias again complaining about being tossed about and how I didn't appreciate this as a customer. Hell I bought Maya from Alias directly so I don't know why they referred me to a reseller in the first place. Anyhow, Paul took my order over fax, and also some transfer documents I had to have signed. Thats basically been the extent of our communication so far.

The dongle arrived a few days ago, but I just got my hands on it last night.... But with nothing as far as documentation goes..I dont know... I'm a little annoyed at the lack of documentation that came with this, especially considering I'm working with Alias directly:(.

Anyhow, I already fired off yet another email to the Alias rep explaining how this thing came with no instructions on how to set it up or transfer my license off my network card and on to the dongle. I guess we'll be talking more by phone on monday. But honestly I was hoping this could all be handled over the internet so I'd be up and running this weekend.

Not exactly a shining example on a smooth transaction but I guess it'll get handled eventually.

This whole process might have gone easier if they had included the dongle option in the licensing menus in the install (but it doesn't show up). I guess they really want to obsolete this method of licensing or something

[gmask]

Alias does try to send local business to local resellers but in the end for this reseller he's just a middle man all the license transfer has to be done with Alias anyway so yes that was pointless. . Your existing license is based on the ethernet card of that computer once you "transfer" the license to the dongle any upgrades or future version will be locked to the dongle and not the ethernet address. You can't get much in the way of support over a weekend.

[pyrokinesis]

Generally speaking, a dongle simply serves to provide a unique identifier: the dongle contains an embedded serial number which the licensed software can read. The device can be transferred to other machines but there's only one dongle so (presumably) the software can only be run on one machine at a time. That's the theory anyway. If the vendor did their homework properly when preparing the dongle for your use, you ought to just be able to plug it into whatever computer you're working on at the time. There should be no concept of "transferring your license to..." the dongle.

[jasona]

well I hope thats not the case, as I did buy this from Alias themselves, and i've been corresonding with an Alias rep about it.

But frankly I don't see what I input the serial code dialog when I start Maya for the first time (on a fresh install to another computer). nowhere in the online registration does it let me introduce the dongle and Maya does not appear to detect the dongle when its plugged in. I can't even give it an authorization code, cause I can't get it to stock locking to the ethernet card.

[gmask]

http://www.alias.com/eng/support/maya/faqs...e/opa\_win.jhtml

Ok so in following the steps above you never see your dongle?

I see in step 4 you can tell it to show all types of hardware.

[jasona]

well, I'm still using maya 4.5 actually, so my screens look different. But also, the hardware dongle never appears in my list of choices. I have two ethernet cards listing (probably because the fresh install is on a laptop that has wireless).

So, its like its not even being detected. Are there some sort of drivers I have to install for it to notice the dongle?

[jasona]

Ok a bit of progress....

After studying the dongle for quite awhile this morning I noticed it has printed on it www.setupmykey.com which I didn't notice earlier. I go to that website, and while I don't see Maya mentioned specifically, I see its offering me Sentinel drivers.

hmmm...

Ok so I downloaded the main sentinal driver install, and installed it to the laptop. Now when I run maya for the first time, and enter my serial number, low and behold, I can now see the hardware lock in the selection list! Evidently the sentinel drivers are not installed off the Maya 4.5 CD's. Ok so I guess a piece of paper telling to go get this driver would have been in order, and would have saved me some frustration.

At any rate, I can't do the online install since I already have this serial registered to my ethernet card on my primary box, so I have to figure out how to do the relocation to the dongle. So no matter what, I have to call Paul back tommorrow morning.

[gmask]

Cool.. report back on how it goes

[deke-kincaid]

The dongle arrived a few days ago, but I just got my hands on it last night.... But with nothing as far as documentation goes..I dont know... I'm a little annoyed at the lack of documentation that came with this, especially considering I'm working with Alias directly:(.

Just curious. Did you read the "Instalation & Licensing Guide" chapter in the online manuals? It has many pages of information about using and installing hardware locks for maya.

[jasona]

hmmm my bad, no I didn't.... (shame)

guess that would have been appropriate before going off about my frustration on lack of service huh? lesson learned

[jasona]

hmmm I just received an abrupt email which apparently contains the activation key, although I certainly don't see it in the body of the email. There is a suggestion at the end of the email that its encrypted (??) . I have to admit, this whole process is soooo different than just installing it to my network card. When I did it that way, they just emailed me the activation key straight up. It was copy/paste. But in this latest email for the dongle, there's no obvious number I need to copy and put into the activate dialog. sigh

I'm stuck guys because again I'm away from my workstation and my install CD's so I can't easily go review all of the documentation on installing a dongle. I realize this might be a tedious request, but could someone read it for me and tell me how to extract this apparently encrypted activation key? I'd be so indebted

[gmask]

Is there an attachment to the email?

[jasona]

no there isnt. its like the email message body has a divider (of hyphens) with the 'license' being the other half.

[gmask]

Sounds like the email was somehow truncated.. I think you can only reply withtwhat you received attached and ask them to resend it.