After having researched the issue of having to be connected to the internet to run SDII (or,I assume,any of the Toontrack products), I found different pieces of the puzzle in different places.
There’s a video and other references indicating no inet connection is necessary because you can authorize from a computer that IS connected – which is plausible.
Another user’s issue was that he got the “Not authorized to run on this computer” after he had been using the product successfully. The response/answer was that it wasn’t the connection to the internet, it was that disabling the network interface “changed the hardware configuration” of the computer. Although it seems more of an operating environment change than a hardware configuration change, the point was made and it dawned on me how all that might fit together.
So please correct me if wrong, but it would seem that Toontrack calculates an ID as it is at the time of starting up the product and arrives at a “computer ID”.
This computer ID is then registered and, I assume, another calculation on the toontrack site during registration determines an “authorization key” matched to the computer ID as it was generated at the time of the initial startup.
These two keys are then compared with every EZ or SDII startup, with a match allowing normal operation.
The authorization key received from registering the product is generated once and stored, but the computer ID is recalculated anew every time you fire up the program.
So it would seem that whatever formula Toontrack uses to determine the “computer id” includes elements that can and do legitimately change within the same physical computer. In this case, I register when I’m connected to the internet, get the authorization code, plug it in and all is well.
But I wish to maintain an internet connection only when I actually need it, so I would then not have the network interface enabled at the time I start the program. Starting up, Toontrack’s calculation, which includes the state of the network card as enabled or disabled, now produces a different computer ID. The subsequent comparison of the two values now is a mismatch, disabling the Toontrack product.
So the bottom line would seem to be – yes, EZ/SD can be registered and will work just fine whether or not you have a network card/inet connection – BUT it damn well better stay that way.
I don’t know how the rest of you feel, but to me, having the function of a software product depend on a combination of variables that could vary at any time, giving you no clue whatsoever as to the actual cause, seems rather cheesy.
I fully understand and agree with the need to protect software, and still think it’s astounding that software works at all. But even given the respect I have for the technical capabilities, I feel this to be an unnecessary imposition on honest, paying customers. Sure, you can “register” more than one computer, but there’s a restriction on overall registrations and it would seem now that you have to use up two of your registrations for a single computer if you have a network adapter but enable and disable it, instead of leaving it one way or another. Or, I would assume, if you change a graphics card. Or if you make any of a myriad of changes that could change a “computer ID” but have absolutely nothing to do with trying to cheat the software manufacturer.
So I would request that Toontrack devise a different security tactic.
Now, of course, all of that is based on my educated guess of what is happening – which could certainly be wrong…in which case….uh, nevermind…
