important please read LICENSING SERVER is back ONLINE!

[admin]

The licensing server is back online as of October 8th, 2017. 

• TRIAL keys must use the latest release of BackyardEOS 3.1.16 and BackyardNIKON 2.0.9 to ensure the keys validate properly against the new server. 
• PURCHASE keys were never affected by this and they continued to work despite the licensing server being offline. 

 

BACKGROUND

On September 26th 2017 the entire web site went down due to server issues.  I took took about 1 hour for my supplier to restore a backup to a different server.  Unbeknown to us they also took it upon themselves to move my site to a newer server environment with tighter security; which meant a different server environment configuration.  This move was done in good faith without realizing that some site features would no longer work.  The licensing server REST API was one of them.

As a result of this move the site went back online rather quickly and the store/download/forum were back online and fully operational under one hour.

On October 1st 2017, 2 days after the website had went offline, I was notified that it could take up to 6 months to rectify the issue.  After I complained, they said they would have a fix for me within a week.  A week came by and a fix was provided as scheduled... but after rigorous testing it was apparent that the changes they made would not work.  Not wanting to engage into an endless cycle of changes that would only lead to disappointment I caved in and fixed it myself. 

If you wish to read the discussion during this time you can find it here.

 

PURCHASE KEYS

Fortunately purchase keys were not affected by this ordeal; they continued to work despite the licensing server being offline.  This is because these keys are meant to auto-validate even when no Internet connection is available.  This is by design and was implemented this way to ensure you could use your paid software even at a remote location where Internet access is not available.  This design decision from several years ago came in very handy during this licensing server ordeal and meant that these keys were unaffected by this.

Purchase keys will continue to work with any versions of BackyardEOS 3.1 and BackyardNIKON 1.0/2.0.

 

TRIAL KEYS

Unfortunately trial keys where affected by this and this meant that these keys would not validate despite having an Internet connection.  This is because the licensing server was not reachable from September 26th 2017 to October 1st 2017.  On October 1st, we have released an emergency BackyardEOS and BackyardNIKON version that would auto-validate even with the licensing server being offline, much like purchase keys. In order to use a trial software between October 1st and October 8th, you had to download this patch release.

Now that the licensing server is back online, Trial keys WILL only work the latest release of BackyardEOS starting with 3.1.16 and BackyardNIKON starting with 2.0.9.  This is because prior releases are still referencing the old licensing server location and since this server is no longer reachable the application will throw an Internet connection error during validating process even if an Internet connection is available.

If you have a trial key make sure you download BackyardEOS 3.1.16 and BackyardNIKON 2.0.9 (or later) before  posting a key validation error.

 

Thank you for your support and understanding during this ordeal, it was a bumpy 10+ days for all.

Guylain & Chris