[guysmiley]

I have 1 desktop and 2 powerbooks. On one, MS office X suddenly told me I had more than the permitted number of installations and was now shutting down. Restarts repeated this.

So I reinstalled and read the license more carefully this time -- it says you are only permitted 2 installations, one on a desktop and one on a laptop.

Ignoring the merits of this scheme, does anyone know how Office figures this out? I use firewire disk mode often, but only for two computers at a time; is this enough for it to keep track?

Thanks.

[KaptainKaya]

You're on a network I take it? If so, you can't run more than one copy of Office v.X at a time...it checks port 2222 for network activity. Just a heads up.

Originally posted by KaptainKaya:
<STRONG>You're on a network I take it? If so, you can't run more than one copy of Office v.X at a time...it checks port 2222 for network activity. Just a heads up.</STRONG>

How does knowing that it checks port 2222 for network activity help?

[nest18]

Microsoft had install a small program in office that scan you network (using port 2222 ; don't know but maybe) to find if there is an other copy running using the same SN #.

Sorry, but that exactly what filemaker & adobe has done with their lastest relaese.

[Nebrie]

Originally posted by &lt;Need Help&gt;:
<STRONG>
How does knowing that it checks port 2222 for network activity help?</STRONG>

Search the OS X forum, there are instructions to block this port.

[fulmer]

yeah, it's blockable. search around here or at the macfixit forums (there's a running thread on the PID thing).

[robby818]

I'm a bit confused....If the license allows the end-user to install Office X on up to two computers, then shouldn't Office X only check for MORE than 2 copies on the same network? Bec you are allowed up to 2 installs, right?

Or does the license mean that you are allowed two installs BUT not on 2 computers on the same network. Thus even though you are allowed to install Office X on your desktop and laptop, you cant network them together and run Office X simultaneously on both machines?

[Maneki Neko]

Originally posted by robby818:
<STRONG>I'm a bit confused....If the license allows the end-user to install Office X on up to two computers, then shouldn't Office X only check for MORE than 2 copies on the same network? Bec you are allowed up to 2 installs, right?

Or does the license mean that you are allowed two installs BUT not on 2 computers on the same network. Thus even though you are allowed to install Office X on your desktop and laptop, you cant network them together and run Office X simultaneously on both machines?</STRONG>

They way the "laptop and desktop" installation clause usually works in a license agreement is that you while you can install them on both, you can't use the both simultaneously.

[guysmiley]

Originally posted by Maneki Neko:
<STRONG>

They way the "laptop and desktop" installation clause usually works in a license agreement is that you while you can install them on both, you can't use the both simultaneously.</STRONG>

Thanks but that wasn't this situation. I got the "too many installations" report, and shutdown, while off the network.

I gather from these comments that using the laptops in firewire target mode is enough for Office to check how many times it has been installed.

Thanks for all the suggestions/explanations.

[Ernie]

I get this message and I only have it installed on 1 computer, running on computer. When it launches, it tells me I am using the software already (even though I'm not) and it exceeds the licence agreement...

I quit and relaunch and it's ok.

Weird.

[PowerMatt]

From a different forum, I do not take credit for this.

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:
&lt;sudo ipfw add drop udp from any to any 2222&gt;
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.)"