[Ernie]

When I launch office, I oftent get a message telling me the software is already in use by myself and the licence count is exceeded.

for example: I am Joe Shmo. I launch Office I get the warning: The software is currently in use by, Joe Shmo this exceeds the valid number of licences. Office then quits.

Anyone else see this problem??

thanks,

[RWoelk]

From MacFixit:

Turning off Office's PID Checker

Last week (see previous coverage), Microsoft released its Network Security updater patch to address problems with Office's PID checker (which prevents two Macs on the same network from running a copy of Office with the same serial number).

Several weeks before this, we received a couple of emails describing how to defeat this network security checking altogether, via turning off the relevant port checking in Terminal. Even though it just makes use of a standard Unix command, we were reluctant to post this information, given its potential for misuse defeating an anti-piracy measure. However, given the risks associated with this PID and given the hassles getting the updater to install, we decided to post this information:


To prevent the PID checker from shutting down your Mac, launch Terminal and type:
<sudo ipfw add drop udp from any to any 2222>
Enter your password when requested.


If your "network" is limited to two Macs, you need only do this on one of the Macs. We tested this and found it worked.

Actually, Microsoft's tech bulletin on this matter offers this same information: "The Network PID Checker uses {ports} 2222 and those greater than 3000. Most corporations block inbound traffic on high ports such as these as a best practice."

The change will survive logging out of OS X and logging back in. But you will need to reenter this command the next time you shut down and restart. A posting on MacInTouch claims that you could create a shell script to automatically run commands like this at startup, but we have not tried this.

Alternatively, if you have a router, you could block this port permanently from the router settings. For example, on our Linksys router, you would do this from the Advanced/Filters page.

Two oddities While working on this item, we noted two oddities:


Entourage icon glitch The Entourage icon occasionally changes to a crude-looking black outline of its usual filled and colored icon. Logging out and logging back in restores the icon to its original form. We have no idea what triggers this icon change.

Sudo command failure The sudo command (needed to get root access) occasionally fails to work in Terminal. For example, when we first tried the above command, it simply would not work. We never even got the prompt to enter our password. Instead, we got a brief listing of the proper usage of the sudo command. After logging out and logging back in from OS X, the sudo command worked correctly. We have seen this happen several times before. Again, we do not know what triggers this glitch.


Update: As we are constantly reminded, there is more than one way between point a and point b under OS X. Several users have pointed out than in addition to configuring a router to block ports, it is also possible to configure BrickHouse to do the same thing. Scott Boone writes: "The IPFW ADD command can also be accomplished via BrickHouse. (As we have noted before, BrickHouse is a very useful graphic front-end to OS X's built-in firewall.)"

[ 03-27-2002: Message edited by: RWoelk ]

[jrramsey]

This works great.

How do I create this as a startup script and where/how do I incorporate into startup without affecting other programs?

I have a Microsoft Office Serial number generator program I could e-mail to you. That would probably stop it from happening , too.

very unregistered

[jrramsey]

I would appreciate that serial number program. How do I get you my e-mail address?

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