Licensing - Additional Questions and Answers

QPS is retiring the use of node-locked (ethernet) licenses (single use and server) and blue Flex dongles. These types of licenses will not work with Qimera v1.6 and Fledermaus v7.8 and newer.

Qimera v1.6 and Fledermaus v7.8 and newer will require a new softlock license or a Hasp dongle (both of these license types are available for Windows/Mac/Linux).

QINSy will continue to require a Hasp dongle. In the future, softlock licensing may become available to QINSy clients.

As of QINSy (v8.18), Qimera (v1.6) and Fledermaus (v7.8) you will notice that there is now a ‘License Manager’. The License Manager will automatically open if a license is not installed on the machine and you open the software. If you do have a license installed on the machine you can find the License Manager by navigating to Help> View License Status.

The License Manager will be used to activate softlock licenses and update Hasp dongles. Softlock licenses and Hasp license codes will be distributed as an XML file that can be uploaded to the License Manager. Alternatively, it is possible to open the XML file in a text editor and manually enter the code into the License Manager.

Note, licenses that begin with 514 correspond to Hasp dongles; the 514XXX number should match the number on the dongle tag. Licenses that begin with 517 correspond to micro Hasp dongles. Licenses that begin with 520 correspond to softlock licenses (single and server).

You can find more information about the License Manager and how to activate and update licenses in the inline Help file.

• You don't need to ship dongles around to share your licenses in your team or between projects.  You can now deactivate a license on a machine in the office and free up its use for field personnel.  All that is required is to send the activation code to the recipient.
• You don't need to worry about dongles being lost or damaged.
• You don't need to worry about physically securing dongles while not in use.
• You no longer wait for a dongle to be shipped when you need additional licenses, QPS just needs to send you an activation code.
  
  

You can activate/deactivate/reactivate a softlock license as often as you like.

A softlock license activated on a single machine will check back to QPS servers every few days in order to get the latest license information and to confirm the license is still valid. If the License Manager cannot connect to the Internet, it will wait a short period and then try again. If the License Manager fails again, the softlock will enter a 90 day grace period where it will remain active without internet access. If the License Manager cannot connect after those 90 days, the softlock license will stop working. 

Yes softlocks can be moved from one machine to another, but must be properly deactivated and re-activated in order to do so. To move a softlock license from one machine to another it requires deactivation on the first machine, and then a new activation on the second machine. Both the deactivation and the new activation require an internet connection. So if a machine is disconnected from the internet and is in the 90 day grace period, the softlock cannot be deactivated until the computer (and License Manager) has access to the internet.

For security reasons softlock licenses can not be used to activate on a virtual machine. In some circumstances we may allow VM activation's for license servers, so please contact QPS if you have questions about using a virtual machine as a license server.

• Fledermaus versions older than v7.8 and Qimera versions older than v1.6 will NOT work with a softlock license. Softlock licenses are not currently available for QINSy, although testing is underway and they may be available for QINSy in the near future.

• Fledermaus versions 7.8 and newer and QM versions 1.6 and newer require a softlock or Hasp dongle license; old Flex dongles (blue dongles) and node-locked (ethernet) licenses will not work with the most recent versions of the software.

• Hasp dongles will continue to work for all QINSy versions.
  
  

Each product will get its own activation code. The big benefit of this is that you can now "split up" your product licenses that might have previously been tied to a single dongle. For example, if you had a single dongle with an active code for QINSy and Qimera, you could only use this on one computer. With softlock activation codes, you can run QINSy on one computer (using a Hasp dongle) and Qimera on another computer (using a softlock). Previously, you would have needed two separate dongles for this.

What is a HASP dongle driver? Do I need this?

Yes, anyone using a HASP dongle needs a HASP dongle driver installed on their computer. The HASP driver allows the dongle to communicate with your computer's operating system and is necessary for the computer to recognize your license.

Sentinel is the maker of the HASP dongle that QPS is now using for all dongle licensing. Sentinel (a separate company from QPS) maintains and updates the drivers periodically, and therefore it may be necessary for you to visit the Sentinel site to download the most up-to-date driver for the dongle.

If ever a dongle doesn’t seem to be working on a computer, the first thing to do is to make sure you have the most up-to-date dongle driver installed on the computer. 

Link to where you can download the most up-to-date Sentinel HASP drivers for Windows/Mac/Linux: https://sentinelcustomer.gemalto.com/sentineldownloads/?s=&c=End+User&p=HASP+HL&o=all&t=Runtime+%26+Device+Driver&l=all#

Users working on Windows machines may prefer to use the “Sentinel HASP LDK - Windows GUI Run-time Installer”, and users working on Mac machines may prefer to use the "Sentinel HASP LDK Mac OS X Run-time GUI Installation".

Information regarding the HASP drivers can also be found on the downloads pages of the QPS website: QINSy Downloads Page, Qimera Downloads Page, and Fledermaus Downloads Page.

Yes, we are asking that clients ship the old blue Flex dongles back to us. Before doing so, please first activate your new license and make sure that it is working for you.

Please return your dongles to your local retail office.

The server licenses are a bit more complex than softlock licenses and require the person installing the server license to have computer administrator privileges, and knowledge of both the network and the firewall settings. An internet connection to the server is also needed.

We have guides for installing softlock license servers on:

• Windows (Softlock+License+Server+-+Windows),
• Mac (Softlock+License+Server+-+Mac+OS+X), and
• Linux (Softlock+License+Server+-+Linux).

The guide relative to your operating system should be reviewed before installing a server license.

If using a network server, only the administrator who manages the server will need to know/see the activation key. All client machines connecting to the server would just need to know the server IP or host name. Only machines that have access to that server would be able to use a license.