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Question about 10 PC limit for free license

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Aaron Levinson, User (Posts: 9)
Jan 19, 2016 4:07:20 am EST
Support level: Free or trial
At https://www.remoteutilities.com/buy/licensing/free-license.php , it states that when using the free license, "The number of remote PCs you can control is limited to 10."  It is a little unclear precisely what this means, but in practice, it appears to mean that someone is limited to no more than 10 entries in the viewer's address book.

I'm planning to use Remote Utilities for remote control in the software product that I work on.  However, in my situation, I set Remote Utilities to run manually, and, in order to start and stop Remote Utilities, I use the /start and /stop command-line switches fr om my software to silently start or stop the Remote Utilities host.  In fact, the Remote Utilities user interface is pretty much hidden from the user of the host in my usage model.  In this usage model, remote assistance is provided proactively--I don't need 24 hour access to remote systems.  The user of my software would call a phone number to get in touch with someone, and the user would also provide the Internet ID (which I extract from the Registry and display to the user).  This is one of the reasons why I selected Remote Utilities--it is possible to use it without exposing the Remote Utilities user interface to the user.

In this sort of usage model, there is no point to persisting entries in the viewer's address book, since any time the viewer is used to connect to a remote host is done on a temporary basis.  As such, it is very easy to keep to the 10 PC address book lim it.  In fact, I can get by with a single entry in my viewer's address book and then changing the Internet ID as needed.

However, I want the ability to control more than 10 systems, just not all at the same time.  The way the free license works allows for this.  Nevertheless, regardless of how the free license is implemented in the viewer, I'd like to make sure that I'm honoring the terms of the license if I use it with more than 10 host systems.  If the free license isn't truly suitable for my usage model, then I'll go with one of the pay license options.

Thanks,
AaronL
Conrad Sallian, Support (Posts: 3033)
Jan 19, 2016 6:35:50 am EST

Aaron Levinson wrote:
At https://www.remoteutilities.com/buy/licensing/free-license.php , it states that when using the free license, "The number of remote PCs you can control is limited to 10." It is a little unclear precisely what this means, but in practice, it appears to mean that someone is limited to no more than 10 entries in the viewer's address book.

Yes, that's right. We'll update the description on that page then.

However, I want the ability to control more than 10 systems, just not all at the same time. The way the free license works allows for this. Nevertheless, regardless of how the free license is implemented in the viewer, I'd like to make sure that I'm honoring the terms of the license if I use it with more than 10 host systems. If the free license isn't truly suitable for my usage model, then I'll go with one of the pay license options.

Thank you. No problem you using the free license. It's just a  matter of convenience. Indeed, if you have many remote PCs in your address book, it might be suboptimal to stick with the free license and constantly create and delete records in the address book.
Aaron Levinson, User (Posts: 9)
Jan 19, 2016 3:58:28 pm EST
Support level: Free or trial
I admit that I feel uncomfortable using such great software without having to pay anything for it.  Remote Utilities was a much better option for my situation than any of the "bigger name" and smaller products out there, many of which I evaluated.  Even the RU Server (what I've been calling the broker server) is free.  Perhaps another type of pay license is in order.  One thing I noticed is that when things switched to 6.0, older versions of the software were no longer supported in the case that the free license was being used.  So, support is perhaps a reason to switch to a pay license.
Conrad Sallian, Support (Posts: 3033)
Jan 19, 2016 5:37:21 pm EST
Hello Aaron,

Thank you for the kind words. Regarding the free version 5.x - we discontinued ID service for that version, but for a different reason. Version 5.x was frowned upon by antivirus programs just too much, because it was relatively easy for bad guys to plant malware or patch that version and get away with that. So we made our free 5.x users to upgrade to version 6, but we didn't take away their free license.
ene george, User (Posts: 1)
Feb 02, 2017 5:14:45 am EST
Support level: Free or trial
hi, if they use my server, can generate a license key for my multiple PC (more than 10)?
Conrad, Support (Posts: 3033)
Feb 02, 2017 9:51:51 am EST
Hello Ene,

Thank you for your message.

I'm sorry, but the free license 10-PC limitation applies to any configuration, even if you use your own self-hosted server instead of our public servers.

Let me know if you have other questions.

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