Activating Source Insight

Source Insight requires initial activation over the Internet. The activation process is new to version 4 and we have designed it to have very low impact on users. Please understand that activation secures your license, validates your serial number, and allows us to continue developing Source Insight.

When you launch Source Insight the first time, the Manage License window will appear. See: Manage License.You will be prompted to either enter a serial number, or start a new Trial license. A Trial license runs for 30 days. You do not need a serial number to use a Trial license.

When prompted, please enter your name and email address. Your email address is optional but highly rec­ommended so you will be able to retrieve your license if you should lose it. This also allows us to notify you if any important updates are available.

Source Insight will then activate your license using our licensing system. After a second or two, your license will be activated and you won't have to activate again.

When you activate a license, Source Insight sends the information you provided, plus a hardware fingerprint to our licensing system over a secure SSL connection so we can match the license to the machine. You can still make most hardware changes without invalidating the installation. We respect your privacy, and we spe­cifically do not share your information with any third party.

If you have any problems or questions about the activation process, please email us at info@sourcein­sight.com.

Transferring Your License - Deactivation

If you decide to stop using Source Insight, or want to use your license on a different machine, you should first deactivate your license on your old machine by selecting Help > Manage License, and selecting "Deactivate License". This reduces your activation count so that you can activate it on another machine. A single license gives you up to two machine activations.

If you don’t have access to your old machine anymore (to deactivate it), please try to simply install and acti­vate on your new machine. There is a good chance it will activate just fine. We allow a certain number of over­ages over a period of time. If the activation fails because of too many activations, please contact info@sourceinsight.com

Activation Questions

Q: Can I activate Source Insight more than once?

The Source Insight license allows you to activate Source Insight on up to 3 machines at the same time, pro­vided that only a single person is using the software. For example, you can install it on your two desktop machines at work, plus your laptop. Therefore you can have up to 3 machines activated per license. However, only one person may use a single license. Multiple people may not share a license.

If for some reason you activate it on the same machine more than once, it does not count against your two activation limit.

Q: How can I transfer my license to a new machine?

To transfer a license to a new machine, you should first deactivate Source Insight on the old machine by selecting Help > Manage License, and selecting "Deactivate License". Deactivating reduces your activation count so that you can activate it on another machine without exceeding your activation limit. A single license gives you up to 3 machine activations (for a single user).

When you activate on the new machine, you will need to provide your license serial number. Use the same serial number as before.

Q: How do I get a serial number?

When you purchase a license, you will be provided with a valid license serial number. It is usually emailed to you.

Q: How do I start a Trial license?

Launch Source Insight. When the Manage License window appears, select "Begin a Trial", and click Continue.

Q: Do I need a serial number for a Trial license?

You do not need a serial number to begin a Trial license. When you begin a Trial license, a special Trial serial number will be assigned to you.

Q: I want to transfer my license to a new machine, but don't have access to my old machine anymore to deactivate it.

First, please try to simply install and activate on your new machine. There is a good chance it will activate just fine. We allow a certain number of overages over a period of time. If the activation fails because of too many activations, please contact info@sourceinsight.com.

Q: What happens if I change my hardware?

It is very unlikely that changing your hardware will invalidate your license activation. If you replace your main drive, you will have to re-install and activate Source Insight again. Even then, the licensing system allows a certain number of changes over a period of time. We absolutely do not want you to be stuck if you have a valid license.

Q: What if I reformat my drive and re-install Source Insight?

When you re-install and run Source Insight, you will be prompted to activate again. However, that is mainly to refresh the license on your machine, and won’t count as a new activation.

Q: What if I don’t have an Internet connection?

The activation process will defer for a while until you have Internet connectivity, so you can still work with it. If your machine will never have an Internet connection, we can send you an activated license file via email. Please email a request to activation@sourceinsight.com and provide the following information about you or the intended end-user:

Q: What network ports does activation use to setup a firewall / proxy?

The activation process uses port 443 (HTTPS) to connect to sls.sourceinsight.com. You can test a con­nection with a web browser using this URL:

https://sls.sourceinsight.com/lsstatus/

Note: you must include the trailing slash.

The web page will display "OK" to show that the license server is up. Note: As of November 2017, we fixed a problem that could have prevented some proxies from reaching our licensing server.

Q: Why does Source Insight require activation?

We have given this long consideration and decided some form of license validation is helpful. Past versions of Source Insight did not have activation, and that resulted in many illegal licenses being used and even sold to unsuspecting customers.

In addition, many customers and companies using Source Insight want to know that their licenses are authentic, and want a way to automatically stay in compliance with the license agreement.

We designed the activation system to be very low impact, and to err on the side of legitimate users. The licensing system allows a certain number of activation overages over a period of time, so it is unlikely any valid license will fail to activate. We absolutely do not want anybody to be stuck if they have a valid license.