Civil 2007: license code not recognized (long)

Hi everybody,

first of all, please forgive my poor english.

I have to take care of thirteen clients with both Civil3D 2007 and
3Dstudio 2007. Software has been installed by two different vendors
(yeah, I know what you're about to ask, and the answer is: no, I don't
know why) about two months ago and it worked fine until last
wednesday, when a technician messed up with the net. Monday another
technician tried to solve but he couldn't fix anything, so now I am in
charge of that mess. I don't know who made what, but what I do know is
that I'm going nuts trying to understand what's going on. I've never
worked on Autocad before, so I know just what I read on the official
documentation.

I fixed up the net and 3DStudio can now authenticate itself over the
Network License Manager, but Civil still doesn't start. The error
message is: "A valid license could not be obtained by the network
license manager. Error [1.5.-18]" The license path on the clients is
correct, and I even replaced the host name with the IP address of the
server, with no results.

I found in the server machine two different license files: one for
3DStudio (with the correct mac address of the network interface) and
another one for Civil3D (with a different mac address).

I followed instructions I found in a forum and I combined the second
license file into the first one, but nothing changed.

The network license manager log reports an error at startup: it reads
the the license code of Civil, and it looks like it's not correct.

As the license code is related to the mac address, my question is: is
the integrity check of the license code (at LNM startup) performed on
the REAL server's mac address or on the mac address that I found into
license files? In the first case Civil's license will never work and I
need a new one, otherwise it should be enough to use the two files
alternatively, altough the mac address of Civil's license file doesn't
match the real mac address of the server's network interface.

One more question: why all that "vendor" strings in the Civil's
license? Is that some kind of "crack"? Is our vendor trying to sell us
illegal stuff?

Here are the two license files, and the combined one (I cutted out the
code, of course):

3Ds:

SERVER PC1 000XXXXXXXX(actual network interface mac address)
USE_SERVER
VENDOR adskflex port=2080
INCREMENT 533003DSMAX_9_0F adskflex 1.000 permanent 16 \
VENDOR_STRING=educationalermanent BORROW=4380 SUPERSEDE \
DUP_GROUP=UH ISSUED=20-Mar-2007 SN=1111111111 SIGN="aaaa \
aaaa aaaa aaaa aaaa aaaa aaaa aaaa aaaa aaaa aaaa aaaa aaaa \
aaaa aaaa aaaa aaaa aaaa aaaa aaaa aaaa aaaa aaaa aaaa \
aaaa aaaa aaaa aaaa aaaa " SIGN2="bbbb bbbb bbbb bbbb bbbb bbbb \
bbbb bbbb bbbb bbbb bbbb bbbb bbbb bbbb bbbb bbbb bbbb bbbb \
bbbb bbbb bbbb bbbb bbbb bbbb bbbb bbbb bbbb bbbb bbbb bbbb "


Civil:

SERVER pc1 00YYYYYYYY(other mac address)
USE_SERVER
VENDOR adskflex port=2080
INCREMENT 52200CIV3D_2007_0F adskflex 1.000 permanent 20 \
VENDOR_STRING=educationalermanent BORROW=4320 SUPERSEDE \
DUP_GROUP=UH ISSUED=12-Apr-2007 SN=2222222222 SIGN="cccc \
cccc cccc cccc cccc cccc cccc cccc cccc cccc cccc cccc cccc \
cccc cccc cccc cccc cccc cccc cccc cccc cccc cccc cccc cccc \
cccc cccc cccc cccc " SIGN2="dddd dddd dddd dddd dddd dddd \
dddd dddd dddd dddd dddd dddd dddd dddd dddd dddd dddd dddd \
dddd dddd dddd dddd dddd dddd dddd dddd dddd dddd dddd dddd "
INCREMENT PLIST adskflex 1.000 permanent 1 \
VENDOR_STRING=A07:51600ACDLAND_2007_0F:
52200CIV3D_2007_0F;B07:51900AMECH_PP_2007_0F:51300INVBUN_11_0F:
52900INVPRORS_11_0F:53000INVPROSIM_11_0F:
51400INVPRO_11_0F;C07:51200ACD_2007_0F:52500REVITS_9_0F:
54100REVITS_9_1F:53700REVSU_3_0F:54200REVSU_4_0F;D07:52600REVIT_9_0F:
52500REVITS_9_0F;E07:54600ACD_2008_0P:
55000INVBUN_2008_0P;F07:51800BLDSYS_2007_0F:53100REVSYP_1_0F:
54500REVSYP_2_0F;G07:53400REVITST_3_0F:
53700REVSU_3_0F;H07:54300REVIT_9_1F:
54100REVITS_9_1F;I07:54400REVITST_4_0F:
54200REVSU_4_0F;A08:55500ACDLAND_2008_0F:
55400CIV3D_2008_0F;B08:54900AMECH_PP_2008_0F:55000INVBUN_2008_0F:
55100INVPRORS_2008_0F:55200INVPROSIM_2008_0F:
55300INVPRO_2008_0F;C08:54600ACD_2008_0F:54700REVITS_2008_0F:
54800REVSU_2008_0F;D08:57100REVIT_2008_0F:
54700REVITS_2008_0F;F08:55600BLDSYS_2008_0F:
55700REVSYP_2008_0F;G08:57200REVITST_2008_0F:54800REVSU_2008_0F \
SUPERSEDE ISSUED=12-Apr-2007 SIGN="eeee eeee eeee eeee eeee \
eeee eeee eeee eeee eeee eeee eeee eeee eeee eeee eeee eeee \
eeee eeee eeee eeee eeee eeee eeee eeee eeee eeee eeee eeee \
eeee" SIGN2="ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff \
ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff \
ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff "

Combined:

SERVER PC1 000XXXXXXXX
USE_SERVER
VENDOR adskflex port=2080
INCREMENT 533003DSMAX_9_0F adskflex 1.000 permanent 16 \
VENDOR_STRING=educationalermanent BORROW=4380 SUPERSEDE \
DUP_GROUP=UH ISSUED=20-Mar-2007 SN=1111111111 SIGN="aaaa \
aaaa aaaa aaaa aaaa aaaa aaaa aaaa aaaa aaaa aaaa aaaa aaaa \
aaaa aaaa aaaa aaaa aaaa aaaa aaaa aaaa aaaa aaaa aaaa \
aaaa aaaa aaaa aaaa aaaa " SIGN2="bbbb bbbb bbbb bbbb bbbb bbbb \
bbbb bbbb bbbb bbbb bbbb bbbb bbbb bbbb bbbb bbbb bbbb bbbb \
bbbb bbbb bbbb bbbb bbbb bbbb bbbb bbbb bbbb bbbb bbbb bbbb "
INCREMENT 52200CIV3D_2007_0F adskflex 1.000 permanent 20 \
VENDOR_STRING=educationalermanent BORROW=4320 SUPERSEDE \
DUP_GROUP=UH ISSUED=12-Apr-2007 SN=2222222222 SIGN="cccc \
cccc cccc cccc cccc cccc cccc cccc cccc cccc cccc cccc cccc \
cccc cccc cccc cccc cccc cccc cccc cccc cccc cccc cccc cccc \
cccc cccc cccc cccc " SIGN2="dddd dddd dddd dddd dddd dddd \
dddd dddd dddd dddd dddd dddd dddd dddd dddd dddd dddd dddd \
dddd dddd dddd dddd dddd dddd dddd dddd dddd dddd dddd dddd "
INCREMENT PLIST adskflex 1.000 permanent 1 \
VENDOR_STRING=A07:51600ACDLAND_2007_0F:
52200CIV3D_2007_0F;B07:51900AMECH_PP_2007_0F:51300INVBUN_11_0F:
52900INVPRORS_11_0F:53000INVPROSIM_11_0F:
51400INVPRO_11_0F;C07:51200ACD_2007_0F:52500REVITS_9_0F:
54100REVITS_9_1F:53700REVSU_3_0F:54200REVSU_4_0F;D07:52600REVIT_9_0F:
52500REVITS_9_0F;E07:54600ACD_2008_0P:
55000INVBUN_2008_0P;F07:51800BLDSYS_2007_0F:53100REVSYP_1_0F:
54500REVSYP_2_0F;G07:53400REVITST_3_0F:
53700REVSU_3_0F;H07:54300REVIT_9_1F:
54100REVITS_9_1F;I07:54400REVITST_4_0F:
54200REVSU_4_0F;A08:55500ACDLAND_2008_0F:
55400CIV3D_2008_0F;B08:54900AMECH_PP_2008_0F:55000INVBUN_2008_0F:
55100INVPRORS_2008_0F:55200INVPROSIM_2008_0F:
55300INVPRO_2008_0F;C08:54600ACD_2008_0F:54700REVITS_2008_0F:
54800REVSU_2008_0F;D08:57100REVIT_2008_0F:
54700REVITS_2008_0F;F08:55600BLDSYS_2008_0F:
55700REVSYP_2008_0F;G08:57200REVITST_2008_0F:54800REVSU_2008_0F \
SUPERSEDE ISSUED=12-Apr-2007 SIGN="eeee eeee eeee eeee eeee \
eeee eeee eeee eeee eeee eeee eeee eeee eeee eeee eeee eeee \
eeee eeee eeee eeee eeee eeee eeee eeee eeee eeee eeee eeee \
eeee" SIGN2="ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff \
ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff \
ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff "

Thanks a lot for your help

Stefano

(Windows for my job, linux for my sanity)