New build for Activation center (ACEN) has been released.

What's new:

[+] Permanent ban feature added.

If brute force protection is enabled in security settings ACEN will automatically temporarily ban remote users after defined maximum number of failures. Failures include standard login and web service login authorization errors and web service errors.

It's now possible to permanently ban specific remote hosts by adding their IP address to permanently banned hosts list.

These hosts will be permanently banned from accessing ACEN.

Following options are currently available:

- Ban single IP address (add IP address to the list)
- Unban single IP address (remove IP address from the list)
- Check if IP address is on the list (search for IP address)
- Delete complete list of banned hosts with single button.

New error codes:

STATUS_HOST_PERMANENTLY_BANNED = 67 ' Remote host permanently banned
STATUS_HOST_INVALID_ADDRESS = 68 ' Invalid host address

[*] Web service: web licensing methods logging extended.

[*] Web licensing changes:

Administrator user can change note and expiration date (limited web license) for any active web license.

New expiration date no longer has to be valid (future) expiration date.

Each time expiration date is changed new (different) activation code will be generated for web license.

Database log entry for updated web license now includes web license id, note and new expiration date.

Removed web license can not be updated.

[+] GridLog logs control added.

[*] Multiple other optimizations and fixes.

[>] UPGRADING NOTES:

If you are upgrading from previous (04.95.00) version be sure to run included database upgrade script (4.95.00-5.00.00.sql).

General upgrading procedure is available here.

New PC Guard Software Protection System update has been released. This update is highly recommended for all PC Guard users.

What's new:

[+] ACEN web licensing: new (on failure) actions added to license alive report ("if report fails") and license removed check ("if check fails") tasks:

"exit" - protection code will close application.

"reset license & exit" - protection code will reset local license and close application

"reset license, show error & exit" - protection code will reset local license, show error message and close application.

[+] ACEN Web licensing: changed descriptions for existing actions and new actions added to "if removed" option for license removed check.

The following actions are now available:

"reset license, show error & exit" - protection code will reset existing license, show error and close application.

"reset license, ban computer, show error & exit" -  protection code will reset existing license, ban computer, show error and close application.

"reset license & exit" - protection code will reset existing  license and close application.

"reset license, ban computer & exit" -  protection code will reset existing license, ban computer and close application.

[+] ACEN settings: "Show standard error messages" option added.

If enabled, protected application will display standard error messages. (Default: ON)

If disabled, messages will not be displayed but will still be logged if logging is enabled.

Standard messages are the following messages that can be changed in language editor and are related to ACEN web licensing:

- AWS_Missing ("Activation web service interface is missing!")

- AWS_WrongVersion ("Wrong version of activation web service modules!")

- AWS_BannedError ("License can not be activated on this computer!")

- Demo_SystemTime_Error ("System date/time error! Please correct your system date/time.")

[+] ACEN settings: "Show exceptions" option added.

If enabled, protected application will display error messages with error code and description related to ACEN web licensing before closing. (Default: ON)

If disabled, messages will still be logged if logging is enabled.

If returned status code is 0, protected application will return standard error return code (20000) on exit.

[+] ACEN web licensing: Custom exit error codes added to license alive and license removed tasks. (Default: 0)

It is now possible to set custom exit error codes for both tasks if "on failure" action includes exiting application.

If left to default value (0) protected application will return status code returned by ACEN:

[*] Improved management of command line options for protected application.

All available options are now displayed as a list and each option can be edited by clicking on it.

The following buttons are available:

"Restore all" - restore all command line options to default values.
"Save" - save current option settings.
"Restore" - restore current option to default value.

Please note that all command line options are case-sensitive.

[*] Protection report now includes more detailed information about all command line options for protected application.

[+] New command line options for protected application:

-PCG_CL_SN [serial number]

Use this option to set serial number from command line.

Serial number can be set for both locked and activated application. In case of activated application existing serial number will be replaced with new one.

If invalid, serial number will be ignored and no error message will be displayed.

-PCG_CL_AUTO_ACTIVATE

ACEN web licensing: If this option is provided from command line application will automatically try to reactivate/activate license without displaying activation dialog box.

This option can be used for initial activation when used together with -PCG_CL_SN [serial number] switch. In this way serial number is set from command line and protection code is instructed to activate application without displaying standard activation dialog box.

It can also be used for reactivation of currently locked license after previous license was reset (for whatever reason). In this case original serial number information is still present on remote machine and instead of displaying activation dialog and waiting for end user to click on "Continue" button protection code will automatically try to connect to ACEN and reactivate license. If required, original serial number can also be changed from command line. In this case protection code will try to get new license with new serial number.

-PCG_CL_GET_SITEMID > output.txt

Use this option to obtain current site/mid codes from command line from protected application without displaying standard activation dialog.

This option is valid for applications protected with REMOTE protection method only.

Redirection to output file is mandatory. Site and MID codes will be written to output file in the following format: sitecode:midcode (":" is used as a separator).

Protected application will automatically close after writing site/mid codes to output file.

[>] Interface dll has been updated. Please be sure to update existing version with latest one.

New build for Activation center (ACEN) has been released.

What's new:

[*] Admin interface pages moved to \admin subdirectory.

[+] Audit: Delete filtered logs option added.

[+] Maintenance options panel added.

This is where maintenance tasks can be customized.

The following options are currently available:

Maintenance tasks:

- Check for importing existing acen.config options
- Check for options which require change from their default values
- Check for default admin user password
- Check for unhashed passwords
- Check for obsolete options
- Check for Activation center updates

Logging:

- Log http exceptions
- Log unhandled exceptions
- Purge logs older than x days

[+] Automatic logs purging feature added.

Logs can be manually deleted at Audit page. Use this option to set automatic purging of old log entries.

Enable Purge logs option in maintenance options and set "Purge logs older than x days" option to appropriate number of days (default: 30 days).

NOTE: Old log entries will be permanently deleted if this option is enabled.

Information about deleted logs will be displayed in maintenance panel each time logs are deleted by this task.

[+] Editbox masking is now enabled for multiple values (mostly hexadecimal values with special format) like site code, mid code, merged site/mid code, serial number, sn seed, pcg program id and ip address for easier editing.

[+] Sorting by User, IP address and Event added to logs grid.

[*] Added check if SMTP server username is a valid email address.

If it is valid email address it will be used as default 'From' email address instead of support email to avoid relaying problems if these two addresses are different. Support email address will still be set as default 'Reply to' email address.

[*] Multiple other optimizations and fixes.

[>] UPGRADING NOTES: No database changes are requires for this release.

New PC Guard Software Protection System update has been released. This update is highly recommended for all PC Guard users.

What's new:

[+] "Check locally administered MAC address (NET ID)" option added to machine locking settings. (Default: OFF)

This option is valid in case NET ID (MAC address locking) is enabled.

If selected and in case detected MAC address is locally administered, protection code will try to determine original MAC address of network adapter. In case of failure, such adapter will not be used for locking.

Additionally, if NET ID is marked as mandatory protection code will not use network adapter with locally administered MAC address in case it is not able to determine original MAC address.

[+] Validate project option added to Project menu.

By default, all project settings are validated when protection process is started.

Use this option to validate current project settings before actually trying to protect application.

[*] Web licensing: serial number is now preserved in case of machine locking error or any other event resulting in license reset.

Next time application is run and requires reactivation original serial number will be automatically filled for end user.

Another new feature is that at this point end user can just click on Continue button and reactivate license or if required change original serial number to new one.

In case original serial number is changed by end user to different one, protection code will not proceed with reactivation but will try to obtain new license with new serial number.

[!] Web licensing: fixed problem with reactivation of license in case license is manually removed from ACEN by admin user.

[*] ACEN server settings panel now includes information if required installed web service interface modules are installed.

If correct versions are installed version number will be green. If invalid versions are installed version number will be red.

[*] Protection report now includes the following additional status information:

- Is interface dll required for protected application (yes/no)

- Is license file required for protected application (yes/no)

This is just a status note. License data is automatically handled by protection code.

- Is license data shared between applications protected with same settings. (yes/no)

[*] Last open (LastOpen) and last save (LastSave) date/time information is now by default saved to project file (PRJSTATS section) each time it is opened or saved.

[*] All hardware locks are now marked with (HW).

[!] Multiple other minor fixes, optimizations and security improvements.

[>] Flexible locking is now enabled for all PC Guard products.

[>] For those who are using PC Guard on some really old machines, protection interface (pcgint) modules (which are required for successful compilation of application using advanced protection interface) can now be used even on old Windows XP machines. Windows XP SP2 was required so far.

New build for Activation center (ACEN) has been released.

What's new:

[+] Client interface pages renamed and moved to \client subdirectory for easier management and separation from admin interface pages.

[+] Custom error pages added. 

This includes custom 404 (page not found) and default error page which will display both error code and exception description for admin users and only error code for client users.

Custom error pages are located in \errors subdirectory.

All application exceptions are also now logged to database.

[!] Fixed problem with reactivation of web licenses which were manually removed by administrator user.

[*] Write access to acen config file is no longer required.

[*] Setup post install options now include option to open upgrading instructions among user guide and whatsnew document. 

[*] Multiple other optimizations and fixes.

[>] UPGRADING NOTES: No database changes are requires for this release.