ET/BWMGR License FAQ

What is a "License"?

When you purchase an ET/BWMGR "license", you are buying the right to fully use the software as it exists at the time of purchase on a single machine. In order to start the ET/BWMGR in full use mode, you will need a license key. Once you pay for the license, it is yours for as long as you chose to use it. Your license may be "cancelled" if there is a payment dispute (ie you dispute your credit card charges or bounce a check) or if you violate our copyright by sharing your license key or using it on more than 1 machine at a time.

If you buy a software license from us, the license is only good on one machine. Its the same as if you bought an appliance from us or any other vendor. If your machine breaks, you are not entitled to run the software on another machine. We give you one replacement within 6 months after initial purchase to guard against you getting "unlucky" with unreliable hardware.

If you buy an appliance from us and it "breaks", we will repair it or sell you replacement parts if you'd like.to continue using the ET/BWMGR software after the warranty period. The license is not tranferrable out of the appliance, just like if you bought a router from another vendor and the router breaks you cannot run their software on your own hardware.

What Type of License Do I Need?

There are 4 types of licenses. A 10Mb/s License, a 100Mb/s License, "Board Level License" and a "Gigabit License". The "10Mb/s" license allows you to fully utilize all of the features of the bandwidth manager on any number of interfaces up to 10Mb/s (a 100Mb/s link will still run at 100Mb/s, but traffic will be limited to 10Mb/s). The 100Mb/s license allows you to run full speed on 100Mb/s links, and up to 100Mb/s on gigabit interfaces. The "Gigabit License" allows for no limit on the speed of the interface and is designed for use at greater than 100Mb/s speeds. The "Board Level License" is for use with ET/5025 and ET/PCISYNC cards. If you have a 1 or 2 port serial card, you only need to buy a board level license to activate the bandwidth manager. With 4 port cards and HSSI cards, a board level license is provided at no extra charge. On HSSI cards, full 45Mb/s operation is allowed

Can I use a 10Mb/s or 100Mb/s License on Gigabit Cards?

Yes, the sofware will run on any supported cards, however you will not be able to pass more than the license allows if you have rules set on the interface. The ET/BWMGR sofware will only enforce the license limit on interfaces with rules, so if you have a 100Mb/s license and a setup with 1 gigabit card and 4 100Mb/s cards, you can use the 100Mb/s license on the 100Mb/s ports and pass data at the full 400Mb/s aggregate rate on the gigabit card if you have no controls on the gigabit interface.

What is "Registration"?

Starting with v3.2, your ET/BWMGR software license must be "registered". Registration is a process where the device that is running the ET/BWMGR contacts Emerging Technologies' server and sends it some information that verifies that you using a valid license. Because of this, your machine must be connected to the internet to register the software. You only need to do the registration process once after receiving your license key, so you can firewall your machine from external access after you have registered if you like.

Before you register, you should verify that you have connectivity with our server. Try pinging www.etinc.com. If you can ping this host, you should be able to reach our key server as well. You will also have to "open up" the machine if you have a firewall in place, as the ET/BWMGR software will want to communication with your system on a UDP port in the 4000-5000 range. If you get a "server down" message but you can reach our server you may have to change your firewall's settings.

How Do I Register?

Once you have been issued your License Key, you can register it with the following command:

bwmgr interface register key

where interface is the interface that you got the serial number from (from bwmgr interface serialize), and key is the license key that was issued when you purchased the software.

What if the Server is Down or I Can't Register for Some Reason?

The bwmgr license server is rarely down, so if you have a problem please check your DNS and firewalls carefully. If you believe that our server is really down, please create a support ticket and inform us that there is a problem. Make sure that you tell us everything that you've done and the exact messages you are receiving.

What is the life of my License?

Your license is good forever technically, if you never change the machine or upgrade the software or OS then it will continue to work. If you want to use a newer version of our software, then there is a time limit of how long you can do so after making a purchase.

New Standard or Update From pre v3.2 Version	6 Months
New Gigabit License	1 Year
Renewal (Update) License	1 Year

What this means is that when you purchase a new license (or upgrade from a version previous to v3.2) you will be able to use new software generated within 6 months of your license being issued (1 Year for gigabit licenses). It DOES NOT mean that your license will only work for 6 months, it only means that you will not be able to use your license with software that is created after a certain date. For example, if your initial license was issued on Feb 1, 2003, you would be able to use any version of software generated up to July 1, 2003. It doesnt matter when you download or try to run it, it only matters when the software was generated. Typically, software is generated the same day as it is put up on ftp.etinc.com, so the date of the software is the same as the date shown on the FTP site. If for some reason that date is not accurate, you can look at the date of the module (ethdlc.o in LINUX and et5025.o in FreeBSD) to see the date that the sofware was generated.

Questions?

If you have further questions, please use our support form.