network licensing for CS3

[tecton3d]

ok, I finally convinced my IT guy and my bosses to invest in a few copies of CS3 for our office. He did so on the condition (and promised per the Adobe salesperson) that it could be a floating network license since only a few of us would need to be using it at a time and didn't need to buy a dozen copies. now, we're trying to set up the networking thing and adobe support is saying that it can't be done or that they've never heard of it and keep bouncing us around in circles over the phone.

 

so my question is: can Adobe CS3 be networked? Does anyone have experience setting this up?

 

thanks

[BrianKitts]

Adobe up until very recently (as in a few weeks ago) was experimenting with an e-license utility, which allowed you to "pass around your license". It failed miserably, crash died, and has been canceled. So no, there is no longer network licensing available.

 

 

so.... on a similar note, a warning about adobe downloads/licensing....

 

Although they have discontinued the e-license program, unfortunately they have not updated all the software on their public/trial download section.

 

I received a serial from our IT to go ahead and install Acrobat 3D. IT is in San Fran, I'm in Columbus.... without the install discs....so I downloaded the application off the adobe site. (big mistake) Used my serial and kept getting and e-license error. After one hour on the phone with adobe support, 13 phone transfers, two disconnections, and possibly 3 continents worth of communication, I finally got someone in english to tell me in a wonderful california surfer delivery, "uhh dude, we don't even use e-license any more" I guess they haven't told anyone overseas. I was then told I need to pay $20 to get a new download from the group licensing section of their site to get the right install. So after I hung up with them, had our IT post their install on the network so I could grab it through the VPN, it installed perfectly with my serial.

Lesson Learned.

 

okay sorry for the OT rant, just a network license warning.....

[AJLynn]

The salesperson told you that? That's what I don't like about salespeople.

 

Last time I looked into this - it was early last year - Adobe only did network licensing under certain conditions.

 

-An educational volume customer can get full network licensing.

-A corporate volume customer can get "E-Licensing" - there's a server that issues product activations, you can run it on your own server or use Adobe's, and a client can return a license which can then be reissued - so if one guy stops Photoshopping and you want to give the license to somebody else, it's pretty easy, and you can automatically audit your license usage. I don't know what volume you need to get this, or how often you're allowed to redistribute licenses (e.g., can you have everybody get a license when they start Photoshop and relinquish at the end of the day, and pretend you have real network licensing).

 

Edit: Just saw Brian's post. So forget E-Licensing. (Are the people who were using it just plain screwed now???)

[BrianKitts]

Edit: Just saw Brian's post. So forget E-Licensing. (Are the people who were using it just plain screwed now???)

 

I would assume that if you have it in place and it works your good, my problem is I had an install for it, but we didn't have the license server in place.

[Dave Buchhofer]

i think hok is the only place I've heard of to successfully get a network floating license of photoshop

[tecton3d]

thanks for the replies but this sounds like a mess!

 

brian, that is exactly what we ran into with adobe support.... not something one expects when you just pulled the trigger on thousands of dollars of software.

 

yes, of course the salesperson told us this was possible if we used "TCP" (i dunno what TCP is but my IT guy does). anyway, long story short, if we have to manually un-register each version of our software for another to use it, which totally screws what we thought would be an efficient way of sharing software and is just a flat-out lie from Adobe regarding such things.

 

This shouldn't be that hard to do... there are so many software packages out there that can be networked licensed!

 

if HOK got it to work, that's barely reassuring but since they have thousands of employees (er. licenses), we only have 12 arch staff, and only about 5 that actually need access to the software in CS3... it doesn't change much looking from the outside in.

[Dave Buchhofer]

As an alternative, photoshop elements actually does do anything most (non-visualizing) architects will need. the main missing parts are actions, scripting, and color balance

 

most people use about 2% of photoshop anyway

[Dave Buchhofer]

There is a group (Large firm Roundtable) of CTO's from larger arch firms, and thats one of the things they're trying to do, is try and pool together so there is some pressure towards adobe losening up on their network licensing. Pretty much Utter Fail ® so far.

[BrianKitts]

I did find a thread on adobes forums other day which indicated the only way to get what your after, but I doubt any of us qualify.

 

If your organization is a CLP Education customer, your organization can purchase CS3 concurrent licenses to implement the floating licensing environment (using tools such as the Sassafras KeyServer). Concurrent licenses generally include a pricing premium for the added flexibility.

 

Concurrent licenses are not available for Adobe products for any other market segments or under the TLP or FLP licensing programs.

 

Please check you situation and proceed based on the information provided here. For any additional licensing questions, please contact your volume license reseller or an Adobe License Center.

 

 

PhotoShop IMO is just one of those things that in my opinion is a necessity right next to your modeling/rendering software. Increasingly more these days because I see post processing becoming a strong part of what really makes an image pop. Not to mention the 11th hour changes that are easier with a couple of mouseclicks as opposed to missing a deadline from rerendering.

 

Bite the bullet and get a couple of licenses, and if the company budget is tight, then you don't always take the upgrade. Honestly if I had to, I could still be getting by with photoshop CS1 using the exr add-on plugin. There's always GIMP, but there's a reason photoshop is an industry standard, it's strong and works well.