SocketTools Licensing Information

The SocketTools ActiveX Edition License Agreement provides you with a single developer license and the right to redistribute the ActiveX components (OCXs) included with this product without any additional royalties or runtime licensing fees.

Evaluation Licenses

When you install SocketTools, you are given the option of entering a serial number or proceeding with the installation without a serial number. If you install SocketTools without a serial number, an evaluation development license will be created which is valid for a period of thirty (30) days from the date of installation. The product is fully functional during this evaluation period; however the SocketTools components may not be redistributed to third-parties. After the evaluation period has ended, you must either purchase a development license or remove SocketTools from your computer system.

Runtime Licensing

Most languages which use ActiveX components automatically manage the licensing requirements for those components, and it does not require any additional coding on the part of the developer. For example, placing a control on a form in Visual Basic will cause the control's license information to automatically be embedded in the executable. However, in some cases it may be necessary for you to explicitly initialize the control by calling its Initialize method and passing a runtime license key. For example, if an instance of the control is created using the CreateObject function or through a reference, you will need to explicitly initialize it.

The runtime license key is a null terminated string that is unique to your licensed copy of SocketTools. The runtime license key is not the same as your serial number and should only be embedded in your compiled application. If you provide source code for your product, you cannot include the runtime key with the source code. The same runtime license key should be used for all of the controls.

If you install SocketTools with an evaluation license, then the runtime license key will be defined as an empty string. This will allow the controls to function on a system with a valid evaluation license, but they will not function on any other system. You must purchase a license and generate a runtime license key before redistributing an application which uses one or more of the SocketTools controls.

License Manager

Included with your copy of SocketTools is a License Manager utility. This program enables you to see what components have been installed and registered on your system, as well as display information about your SocketTools license. If you need to create a new runtime license key, you can use this utility to do so. Select License | Header File from the menu and choose the type of file that you wish to create. For more information about how the License Manager can be used, please refer to the online help file that is included with the utility.