Callback Technologies - Activation FAQs

What is Activation?

Activation is an additional step in the registration process designed to limit both intentional and unintentional software piracy. Product activation is a popular way for software vendors to control software piracy and is used by many of the largest software companies including Microsoft. By limiting software piracy, companies are able to focus more attention and resources toward development and customer service providing substantially more value to customers.

Activation is not intended to hinder legitimate usage under the terms of the product licensing agreement.

How does it work?

Activation normally occurs during the initial installation process. When installing the product for the first time on a machine the install program will automatically activate your product key. In environments where the install program cannot be run, such as on a Linux operating system, a command line or manual activation process is supported. Please see the help file for details about licensing the edition you are using.

What is a NODEID and how can I find out what my NODEID is?

The node id is a one-way hash of the machine name that is used during the activation process. This is done to protect your privacy as we never learn or collect the actual machine name of the computer where the products are activated. In most cases you do not need to know your NODEID as the activation process is designed to automatically calculate this value.

During the installation of the product the NODEID will be automatically calculated and used to activate your product key.

If you wish to find your NODEID you can find this in a couple of ways:

If the components are not activated on a machine, trying to use any of the components on that machine will cause a box to appear that will contain the NODEID of that machine.

You can run this application to get the NODEID of the machine it is run on.

Do I need any special software for product activation?

No. Product activation will be completed during the installation process. Please see the help file for details about licensing the edition you are using.

My computer is behind a firewall, will this be a problem when activating my software?

The installer for the product will attempt to use firewall and proxy settings configured on the system. If automatic activation fails the product can still be activated by following the Offline Activation instructions.

What about privacy? What information is required to activate my machine?

To activate your software the only thing you will need to supply is a valid Product Key and NODEID. These are the only things that we require in order to validate a user and allow activation. In addition, the NODEID is a one-way hash so it would be impossible to learn any kind of information from it. By not gathering any information other than this Callback Technologies completely protects user privacy.

Can I use Callback Technologies products without activating?

You may write code using a toolkit which has not been activated, however at runtime you will see an exception indicating a license could not be found. All products must be activated, or their use will result in an exception.

I do not have an Internet connection on the machine where I would like to install. How can I activate my product?

Offline activation is supported. When running the setup if our licensing server cannot be reached you will be presented with a URL for manual activation. Copy the URL to a machine with internet access and follow the directions to download your license keys. Copy the keys.reg file from the online machine back to the offline machine and double click the keys.reg file to import the keys to your registry. After importing the keys, re-run the setup on the offline machine and it will detect the installed license. If you require assistance please contact support@callback.com.

What if I would like to transfer the software to another machine?

If you transfer the software to another machine, you must submit a License Transfer Request (http://www.callbacktehnologies.com/lic/transfer/"). Before submitting this request, please be sure that the software has been completely removed from the machine where the software previously was installed. After submitting the license transfer request you may install the software on the new machine. You do not need to wait for confirmation before installing on the new machine.

When I build a compiled application, will I have to activate my license on all of the machines the application is distributed to?

No, Royalty Free licenses do not require activation on deployment machines. When building compiled applications, activation is only required for the development machine where the license is installed. When an application is compiled on a machine with a valid activated license, the licensing information is built into the application and can be deployed freely.