EPlan P8 Educational License blues

Well, I got myself a copy of EPlan P8 Educational. A 270 days license would give me enough time to figure out if I need it - at my own pace.

However, there is something strange going on with that license. I went through the online registration process and in a few hours received an e-mail with the serial number and the activation code. Punched the numbers in - all works. Great.

Next morning, when I start EPlan, all of a sudden I am getting a message that my license file is no longer valid. So I get to the licensing screen, punch in the same numbers from the e-mail... and it tells me now that those numbers are not good for this PC but are good for a PC with "Host ID" followed by 10 hex numbers.

Well, stuff happens. I go the the registration page again, register myself with all the same data again (feeling like I am abusing the system, but I need it to work!). Since it is the end of the day in Germany, I don't receive another e-mail till next morning.

Next morning arrives, I get the new serial number and activation code from the new e-mail, punch those numbers in... and getting a message that those numbers are good for a PC with Host ID... followed by 10 hex numbers. Different from the yesterday's. Ouch.

In the installation folder, under \License\Tools, I found a little program called HostIdClient.exe which, when launced, shows me the Host ID (which apparently is used in licensing process) for my PC. The problem is, every time I reboot my laptop, the Host ID is different. I tried it 6 times and could not get to where it produces the same numbers. I thought it was derived from my hardware; my hardware does not change, why this thing does?

Does anyone know what gives here? I guess I can try to re-register as many times as I want (and possibly draw the attention of the people at EPlan as someone who is trying to cheat). But that would all be in vain since I would register with one Host ID today but it will change tomorrow so my new license would not work...

I would appreciate any experience shared on this.

Well, your Host ID should always be the same. Usually, I use the MAC ID of my network card as a host ID, since that is less likely to fail than say, the hard drive. You need to find out from the EPlan people what Host ID their software is looking for, and find out if you can specify what you want to use as a host ID. If you can post an example Host ID number, maybe I can tell what is it.

The MAC ID is 12 hex digits (which is actually 6 hex numbers), you say 10 hex numbers so I'm not sure what's going on there, or if they are dropping the first 2 digits (which are still zeros on every network card), or if maybe your machine has multiple network cards, or what.

You need to find out the host ID of your machine, and makes sure that the license they send you is for that one. I'd quit using hostIDclient.exe. I again recommend the MAC ID of your network card.



To find this info, in the Windows start menu, click "Run". In the entry field type "cmd" to open the command prompt. Type "ipconfig /all". Look for "Physical address". That will be your MAC ID, and will look something like 00-08-9B-CD-F4-24. Without dashes, this number should be your Host ID.

$

Well, here is the deal: I have also thought that the Host ID is based on my network card MAC address (which makes sense). First of all, none of the six Host IDs generated matches any of my 3 network cards' MAC addresses. Which in itself is not a problem (I can guess a Host ID is not a MAC address but is rather generated by some undisclosed algorythm based on a MAC address), the problem is that it is different every time, while MAC addresses are not.

So there might be something else involved. I for now would like not to contact EPlan reps; I wonder if someone else has ever experienced the same problem.

maybe you should just keep rebooting until it works!?

Well, between my previous post and now I have found something that might be the root cause.

I have a VPN program installed called Juniper Network Connect, which is our corporate standard. Even when I am not using it, it maintains a so-called "virtual network adapter" emulating yet another network card.

Guess what. That thing's MAC address is changing between the reboots, being assigned dynamically (don't ask how). I found the setting in Windows Device Manager (and this virtual adapter is one of the hidden devices!) where a fixed MAC address is to be used; however I am not sure if that setting won't be overridden by the corporate policy when I log in at my office tomorrow morning. If it stays, I will try to re-register with EPlan one more time (hopefully they will let me) and use that registration from now on. I would also have to write down that fixed MAC address in case something changes again.

Apparently, EPlan generates Host ID based on MAC addresses of all the network cards present, including the virtual ones, like this Juniper VPN thing. I understand it is hard to predict any possible situation but it would be nice if EPlan's licensing system would allow to choose a network card to be used for the Host ID.

I'll check it all tomorrow and will let know if it works. There no such thing as useless knowledge, you know...

Bingo.

Yikes...

Just a question... where can I download this training 270 days version ??
Thanks,
[email protected]

Thanks a lot !!!

if you look around you can find software that will change the mac address of your nic. it may be easier just to get with them and get a new license, but if they give you trouble remember you have that option.

Eplan P8 education templates need help.

I downloaded the 270 days trial version ( Eplan Education version 2.0), I received all the serial number and registration code and all were entered fine. However starting a new project, I cannot find any templates to start my project. Does anyone know if this is something I need to install separately? If you know where to download the templates, please help. I cannot find any templates in the installation folders.

Thanks for your help.

Try:

Project > New

and select the directory 'EDU'.

Files of type:

*.epb (made by Eplan)
*.ept: (selfmade)

After this you can save your new project in a new directory. By the way, there is na 'save' because all your actions are saved immediatley.

This issue has been identified by EPLAN and should be fixed in version 2.1

Eplan P8 is a difficult application to master, and a few years ago when I started using it I honestly believed I had made a big mistake. I did persevere and now having much less hair I can use it. I must confess to not using all the features, I stay in my comfort zone.This is a typically German package designed to be used by experts and not at all user friendly to learn.
Lots of things are difficult, like sheet layouts, inclusions of logo in the layout
If any of you guys need templates or maybe a sample application that I did I can send it to you.