License Borrow and Docking Station

FYI.

We had a user today who was unable to "keep" a borrowed license. He could
get it but when he rebooted it was gone.

Our great tech support at DC Cadd here in Texas was able to figure out that
it was disconnecting from his docking station that caused the problem.

I hadn't heard of this problem before so I thought I would share it with
others.

Thanks,
Conan Witzel

 

I've got the same problem going on here with a user as well, but its only
one user. I have 3 others that can borrow licenses while connected to their
docking stations and go home and work off the network and docking station
just fine. These are Dell Latitude Laptops running XP or Win2k. Any help
figuring this out would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Shawn Caldwell

 

What exactly is the hardware configuration difference when docking vs. at
home? Do they boot from a different disk (non-boot disks shouldn't matter)?
Use a different network card?

--Cy--

 

This is just an assumption but I assume it is because the docking station
has an independent network card. The solution in this case was to unplug
from the docking station and connect directly to the network with the
laptop. Then we had no problems.

My guess in the case of the Dells for Shawn is that several of the docking
stations have more limited capabilities. In other words they have no
"extra" network card and simply pass straight through.

I think based on the need for MAC address on the license server the same is
most likely true for the borrow also. Not sure but I think it creates a
file or maybe a registry entry and without the Mac address it is conceivable
that a user could copy that setting over. They eliminate this possibility
with the MAC address.

These are just guesses and I am willing to bet there are some people out
here who know allot more about it than I do.

Conan Witzel

 

Actually ours do have the NICs in the docking station (port replicator I
guess is their official name).
I've tried having the guy undock, plug in and check out a license and that
didn't work either. I just don't know what it could be and its frustrating.
When he checks the license out he gets the little ballon saying he's running
off a borrowed license. When he restarts though he gets a box saying can't
find License Server. I may have him undock and then try starting without
rebooting and see what happens.

Shawn

 

Shawn,

This is the problem we had and we were able to fix it by undocking. Are you
starting autocad while docked then borrowing after you undock? You might
try undocking, starting autocad, borrowing license then restart and check
it.

One other idea is to restart the computer undocked, and do the above.

Sorry I can't be of more help,

Conan

 

Just as a wild guess (correct me if I'm wrong), when the license is
borrowed, some association is created with the network adapter that's in use
at that moment (to access the network license server), on the assumption
that this same network adapter will continue to be connected to the PC
during the borrowing period.

If your dock has its own network adapter, which is then not present in the
undocked configuration, this might be the cause. In this case, you might
try borrowing the license while undocked (assuming the laptop has its own
adapter).

--Cy--