MC says my license has expired

Questions about MultiCharts and user contributed studies.
drwar
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MC says my license has expired

Postby drwar » 01 Jan 2009

Please fix this ASAP

J~

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TJ
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Postby TJ » 01 Jan 2009

one day last week my internet was disrupted... probably due to severe weather again.

it was the holiday week... I wasn't going to trade anyway, so that was no big deal.

With the free time on hand, I could review my charts and do some analysis... maybe fine tune my strategies.

BUT... MC says it needs to authenticate (or something to that effect) before it would go to work.

Man, this pisses me off.

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Postby bowlesj3 » 01 Jan 2009

Is the key still showing in the "help, Registration code" entry?

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TJ
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Postby TJ » 01 Jan 2009

Is the key still showing in the "help, Registration code" entry?
Yes... it doesn't help. MC was calling home, and it needs an OK from Mom.

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Postby bowlesj3 » 01 Jan 2009

Is this a new release thing. I am using MC 2.1.999.999 and I have never had that problem.

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TJ
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Postby TJ » 01 Jan 2009

Is this a new release thing. I am using MC 2.1.999.999 and I have never had that problem.
I never had this problem when I was using v2.
They must have stepped up the authentication.

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Postby bowlesj3 » 01 Jan 2009

I think it sucks that one needs an online connection to their head office. I think it may have started at MC 3.0 since I seem to remember such a problem with it.

I sent them a suggestion about this. If the user has a license for one machine only, the machine it is allowed to run on should be marked via that internet so that when they go offline they can use it only on that machine. This way at least you would have one machine useable while the interent was down. So in my case, if I was last online with it on the notebook I could continue to use it offline on the notebook. If I was last online with MC on the desktop, I could continue to use it on the desktop.

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Postby bowlesj3 » 01 Jan 2009

It just occured to me that in order for the above idea to work, in order to switch machines you would need both online at the same time so it could remove it from one machine first before allowing it to be written to the other machine that it is okay to run MC offline on that machine.

Hocky but doable.

A better varaint would be that there is a file in the directory on both machines and if the internet is down but the home/office network is still running there could be a software that does the above update while offline from the internet.

drwar
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Postby drwar » 01 Jan 2009

[quote]Is the key still showing in the "help, Registration code" entry?[/quote]

I can't get into MC to push the Help button. The window comes up while its loading and you have a choice register or cancel. I put in my registration number but it doesn't accept it.

It must be a new feature.

J~

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Postby bowlesj3 » 01 Jan 2009

Sounds like it is a new D feature. D for a drag. It is a life time license?

drwar
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Postby drwar » 01 Jan 2009

[quote]Sounds like it is a new D feature. D for a drag. It is a life time license?[/quote]


Yes, It sure is , So there is something going on. Live help is not back until the 5th I sure hope they check their email before then. That would be a total bummer.

J~

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Postby bowlesj3 » 01 Jan 2009

TJ nailed it I think. MC is trying to find the TS-Support server and it can not find it. It is trying to verify that it is okay to run on this machine. I think they are trying to ensure that you are only running on one machine at a time. If my theory is correct then this is why I feel that they should write a separate stand alone software for this purpose that can communicate across then network and the user can tell MC which machine they want to run it on. It would be a simple database software. Each record would be the license (two licenses then two records). For each license it would write to the machine and let MC know it can run there. The machine IDs would be picked up by this software too so it would need to find the last machine it gave the okay to before it could write to allow MC to run on a different machine. It would have to be secure somehow so you could not hack it. The only problem is if the machine blew up while MC was running on it this could be a problem getting to run it on the other machine. So the solution to that would be to give it the right to run on that machine for X hours only. This way you could reasign it to a different machine once that time period was up since the software would know you can not run it on the other machine anyway after the time limit. So if you want to reassign it before the time limit you need the machine it is currently running on. If it is not available you have to wait for the time limit.
Last edited by bowlesj3 on 01 Jan 2009, edited 4 times in total.

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Postby bowlesj3 » 01 Jan 2009

Live help is not back until the 5th I sure hope they check their email before then. That would be a total bummer.
For me it would be bummer tomorrow since my market is up tomorrow.

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Postby TJ » 01 Jan 2009

TJ nailed it I think. MC is trying to find the TS-Support server and it can not find it...
Well, TSSupport said the MC program has a 30 day grace period. or that it only requires an authentication once every 30 days.

What pissed me off was, the MC copy in my machine was working perfectly... until the internet was interrupted. In my search for the fault, I rebooted my computer... and MC would not work again. Sigh.

In a recent email, TSSupport was saying there are lots of people running a second copy in a second machine. I can see TSSupport is upset at the pirates. I would too. But I think there is a better way to handle this.

e.g. if the internet is out, what good is a second copy?
MC should be able to detect the internet wasn't connected, and let the user use the MC offline. MC should be able to detect if the internet is reconnected. It can then call home to do the authentication.

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Postby bowlesj3 » 01 Jan 2009

But probably some users are doing backtesting offline on one machine (no need for internet) while they are trading live on another machine and using only one license. So their system would work until the internet comes down but that creates an even bigger problem. The idea I have would solve this completely once that software was perfected. If the user's home network goes down that is the user's problem.

TS4.0 had a key you could move but that was a pain. If can be lost. Controlling software like I am suggesting can be copied and put in a safety deposit box so the user always has it available.
Last edited by bowlesj3 on 01 Jan 2009, edited 1 time in total.

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Postby bowlesj3 » 01 Jan 2009

I think the software would need to update a copy of its control database on all machines with each user update session just incase one of the machines blew up. If that happened the user could reinstall that software on any machine and get at the latest info regarding this issue.

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Postby traderstuff » 02 Jan 2009

Is the key still showing in the "help, Registration code" entry?
I can't get into MC to push the Help button. The window comes up while its loading and you have a choice register or cancel. I put in my registration number but it doesn't accept it.

It must be a new feature.

J~
Exact same problem here dr, completely unable to log in after inputting the registration info for the PERMANENT license that should have been there in the first place.

The box that first pops up says that 'Multicharts license is expired' .

I don't believe this is the problem that Bowles presented.

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TJ
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Postby TJ » 02 Jan 2009

must be the Zune bug.

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Postby miltonc4 » 02 Jan 2009

Hi All

This happened to me occasionally a long way back now,but was fixed when I inputted the original registration code
Might be a stupid suggestion,when this message occurs again ,try the original code and it might start program
Regards
Milton

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Andrew Kirillov
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Postby Andrew Kirillov » 02 Jan 2009

Dear Customers,
Since Marina is out I will try to comment this issue.
First of all I do apologize for the troubles.

The New Year rollover affected our database and its behavior was wrong for some accounts.
We've just fixed.

It simply considered some accounts as expired, but it was wrong.

I want to confirm that MultiCharts DOES work for 30 days without the Internet. However this time our digital rights management system disabled some accounts and didn't allow them to login.

So please don't worry - you can use the software without the internet. You can simply test and report back.

Again we sincerely apologize for the delay and inconvenience and will bear it in mind to avoid the similar issues in the future.
We have a different holidays schedule in Russia and it affected the delay in troubleshooting.
Happy New Year!
Andrew

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Postby bowlesj3 » 02 Jan 2009

Hi Andrew,

How does the 30 days without the internet actually work?

In my case I do not backtest so I have no real need to run two MCs on different machines at the same time. I am using MC2.1.999.999. My normal procedure is to shut the desktop MC down after market hours to get a proper save to the data base of the most recent data, I then copy the database files to the notebook, I bring MC up on the notebook to view the charts make sure I did not make an error in the copy (the internet can detect MC running on the notebook at this point). then I shut the notebook down and will go offsite to use MC offline without the interenet available.

The question is "when I bring MC up on the notebook at home while the internet is still available" is it extending a grace period here and thus if I did not do this would MC on the notebook stop working?

Thanks,
John.

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Andrew Kirillov
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Postby Andrew Kirillov » 02 Jan 2009

John,
Since you don't use MultiCharts on two computers AT THE SAME TIME, your actions are 100% legitimate. And yes, you can use MultiCharts offline on the laptop for 30 days.

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Postby bowlesj3 » 02 Jan 2009

Hi Andrew,

Thanks for answering so fast.

So if I understand your response, then bringing MC up on the notebook before leaving the house (while the internet is still available) is what has kept it running offsite without any problems all these months. Sometimes I skip this check so maybe now I won't.

John.

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Postby Andrew Kirillov » 03 Jan 2009

"then bringing MC up on the notebook before leaving the house (while the internet is still available) is what has kept it running offsite without any problems all these months."
You can skip this step and it will work!

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Postby bowlesj3 » 03 Jan 2009

I just want to say I am very happy with MC. Yes the recalculate command is related to an abort that occurs maybe every 2 or 3 days (sometimes running for a week without it occuring) but that is the only problem I have that has any significance really. In addition to that it may not be MC at all. It may be an activeX problem since one of the dumps seemed to suggest it aborted inside an activeX routine.

I just wrote a routine using the EL collections map csv file read to pick up my trading activity log created by the database program. The study graphs coded details of my activity related to a long position below the prices and for a short position above the prices. I figure it will help me become more sensitive to what I do during the day and become more efficient during the day. There are lots of ways to use MC outside of backtesting and charting.


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