| Issue: Some PC/Windows applications and/or configurations can cause the network interfaces to change, seemingly randomly and/or at reboot time, which can cause a license to become invalid.
This issue only affects the  PC/Windows version of LicenseControl. No  Mac/OS X version of LicenseControl is affected.
Discussion: LicenseControl uses a system's complement of ethernet MAC address(es), along with other information, to identify a system and each installed license is tied to a single system. If the MAC addresses (also sometimes [erroneously] referred to as ethernet addresses, hardware addresses or physical addresses) change sufficiently, a license will become invalid. You can determine your system's complement of MAC addresses by issuing, in a command window, the command:
ipconfig/all
MAC addresses are normally written using 12 hexadecimal digits and often, for readability, have each pair of digits separated by colons or dashes; e.g., 00:30:65:04:7B:2E or 00-30-65-04-7B-2E or 003065047B2E.
To prevent a license from becoming invalid, it is necessary to de-activate/relinquish a license before changing the network interfaces (i.e., MAC address[es]) and activate/re-install the license after such changes. This is relatively easy if you are permanently changing network interface cards (NICs).
However, this is impossible to do if a system's MAC addresses are changing at undetermined times. Using certain wireless and/or IP over FireWire capabilities can cause this behavior. In addition, using Windows' network "bridging" or routing capability with some versions of Windows can cause such changes at every reboot.
Prevention: Unless you actually require the bridging/routing capabilities, we strongly suggest that you don't use bridged/routed network mode (it also can decrease security if you use it when you don't need it). If you are using a product or capability that causes your MAC addresses to change, it will cause this issue with a Windows product that is licensed using LicenseControl.
To prevent this issue, you should determine, using the "ipconfig/all" command and troubleshooting techniques, and change the application and/or configuration to ensure that the reported ethernet/MAC addresses only change as a result of an action that you, the user, take. You can then actually be "in control" of your own system and can de-activate/relinquish and activate/install your license as required. In short, you must stabilize the complement of MAC addresses on your system to the point where they change only at your direction (e.g., when you change a network interface card or network configuration setting).
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There currently is no permanent workaround for this issue so prevention is the best approach.
Note: this was seldom an issue with Windows 2000 and has largely disappeard with more recent versions of Windows XP.
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