Network licences allow the sharing of any number of software licenses between a larger number of workstations. Each workstation requests a licence from a central pool only when the application is opened by a user and, when the application is closed, the licence is released back to the central pool. Multiple instances of the same application on the one machine use only a single licence and the system is fully tolerant of workstation crashes and temporary network outages.

With a network licence, client machines connect to a central server to obtain their licence. The actual software can be installed either locally on each client or on a shared folder on the server.

Network Licence Requirements

The network licence method requires that you setup a local network licence server on your local area network. Once set up, any other computer on the local area network can request a licence from this server. This server can be any computer that is:

• running any Windows Operating System from NT onwards; including Vista and Server 2003,
• has an internet connection for communication with the Ecotect Activation Server,
• has a static private IP address (IP address as seen by computers within your local area network),
• has a static external IP address (IP address as seen by computers outside your network, ie. through the Internet), and
• will be operational during the times you wish to be using the software.

To set up a local network licence server, you install a small program that runs in the background receiving and processing licence requests (the network install is provided by email when a commercial or educational products are purchased). Even on large networks the CPU usage and traffic generated by this process is insignificant. This small background program is known as the Licence Service.

The Licence Service can serve any number of licences. You can easily add or remove licences from subsequent purchases and control access to each set of licences using specific IP address ranges.

Setting Up Network Licences

There are three important steps in setting up your network licences:

1. Setting up the Network Licence Manager and Licence Service
   Installing both the Network Licence Manager and the Licence Service on the computer you wish to use as your local network licence server.
2. Activating Your Purchased Licences
   Using the Activation Wizard in the Network Licence Manager to generate a network licence file on your local network licence server to begin serving licences.
3. Connecting Worstations to Your Server
   Installing the purchased software on each client machine or in a shared network folder and using the Activation Wizard within it to locate the local network licence server.

Network Licence Management and Use

There are a number of useful features of Ecotect's Network Licence system, as well as some advanced options for setup and maintenance:

1. Using the Network Licence Manager
   Detailed guide to the Network Licence Manager and how to set it up for your network.
2. Update / changing your network licence server
   Details on how to move licences to a different server, or update the sections of your network that can use licences.
3. Checking-out (loaning) network licences
   Allows users to check-out temporary licences from the central pool of network licences on your server -- particularly useful for laptops when access to the licenced software is required away from the office or school.