Regarding the trial period of LnS

[rottenbanana]

Searching topics about the trial period, i found that while LnS doesn't show the remaining days in the trial, one can count the days by checking the installation date from the date LnS folder was created.

What if a person tested the product for 10 days, uninstalled it, and installed it again after 15 days. Naturally, the folder was deleted, and the original installation date is now unknown and lost. How does one know there is only 5 days remaining?

Or is this a possible way to trial the product forever, by reinstalling LnS every 29 days? Considering the ruleset can be exported, and the rest of LnS configuration is fast and easy, wouldn't this be far too obvious to exploit?

Also, does LnS announce it's trial period to be over the moment it expires, or does the application filtering simply and silently stop working?

+edit: The Welcome-page of LnS shows statistics, but it seems "bytes handled in downlink" gets reset every 4 gigabytes. Why? Not that it's overly important, just that it keeps recycling the stats on a 100mbit line pretty often. Would be nice if it didn't.

[Frederic]

The trial period of Look 'n' Stop is 30 days, whatever the number of installations you did.
Any way used to bypass this, is considered as an illicit usage of the software.

Yes, statistics can't go over 4 GB (internal counters are 32 bits integer, so far...). This statistic part is just for information, as a quick check to verify the firewall is alive and working. If you need real and precise statistics, you should use a dedicated tool for that.
However we will try to fix that in a future release.

Regards,

Frederic

[rottenbanana]

So does LnS keep track of the 30 days by starting the count from the *first* installation date, or total days the program has been installed/active? If from installation date, wouldn't one lose trial days if one uninstalls the program in the middle of the trial, and re-installs it after the 30 days have passed?

I'm asking because i've trialed the product in the past, but i have no idea for how many days and when was it. I just re-installed LnS yesterday, and considering the application filtering still works, it must still be on a valid trial. But i have no idea how long i have to test it, i wouldn't want it to suddenly stop filtering my apps without any notice.

And yes, dedicated bandwidth meters do work, but why install yet another tool for it if a firewall can have a good statistics page. :)

Thanks for your reply.

[Frederic]

When the expiration period expires, the application no longer starts minimized, and it opens on the registration tab.
This is usually sufficient to detect the registration is required.

The other meter tools (like Stat 'n' Perf ;) ) usually have a graphical view for bandwidth usage, and Look 'n' Stop doesn't have this...

Regards,

Frederic

[rottenbanana]

-{ Quote: "When the expiration period expires, the application no longer starts minimized, and it opens on the registration tab.
This is usually sufficient to detect the registration is required." }-

This i didn't know. Yes, it is very sufficient for figuring out the trial is over. On yet another note, are the 2.06p1-3 versions sorts of release candidates for an upcoming bigger release? Meaning, if i were to buy the software now, would i find myself buying it all over again in a month or so? If so, i'd rather not buy it twice in a row even i get the upgrade for a smaller fee.

[Frederic]

If you buy a 2.06 version now, you will get any further 2.0x for free.

The full information is here:
http://www.looknstop.com/En/faq_problems.htm#renewal

Frederic

[rottenbanana]

Thanks for clarifying these. :) Off to register, then.