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3CX License Activation – AKA Perpetually Subscribed

Like many companies, 3CX requires their software to call home for activation. This is all fine, except it needs to continue to call home to maintain it’s activated status. Failed call homes will cause 3CX to revert to a free license… and with it, loss of features.

The problems start when 3CX turns off the activation servers for older versions. Say you purchased a license today. A perpetual license that never expires. You are happy with it as is and won’t be paying for maintenance or running updates. Then, in a couple years from now it suddenly wants to verify it’s license and bam… it can’t because 3CX turned off the activation servers and it reverts to a free edition.

The issue here is the misleading license type. A 3CX license can be purchased as either Annual Subscription or Perpetual. When you buy it as an annual license you expect to have to pay each year – after all it is a subscription. But when you buy it as perpetual license you expect it to work perpetually.

It’s clear from their business practices that if you’re going to license 3CX that you should not waste your money on perpetual licenses.

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One response to “3CX License Activation – AKA Perpetually Subscribed”

  1. gigaweb Avatar
    gigaweb

    We had a problem with a 3CX v18 Update 7 server which was not able to contact the activation servers. So I made a post here:

    https://www.3cx.com/community/threads/standard-license-v18-question-not-able-to-connect-license-server-and-expires-31-12-2023.123727/

    (just so you don’t have to click, I will copy the content of the post here)

    Hello,

    After a disaster recovery of our VMs I recovered the Phone server last month. Now I just get an email (from 3CX) that it was not able to contact the licensing server.Unfortunatelly the firewall and reverse proxy guys are still very busy cleaning up all the mess after our disaster recovery. So I have a few questions so the manager can make a better planning.

    Note that we are currently running an v.18.0 Update7 Standard Anual (4sim calls) version. It says it’s expiry date is: Active (2023-12-31). When clicking on it, it says it fails to do make a TCP connection to activate.3cx.com.

    What will happen if we do nothing (so we do not fix connectivity and it will not be able to reach the licensing server) after 2023-12-31?
    Will we loose ring-groups (features), will we loose simulateous calls? Or nothing? (which gives us some headroom).
    The email I got from 3CX says it will “release the FQDN from our subscription” if it will not contact the licensing server within 10 days.
    Well, what happens if we do not contact that server in 10 days, but AFTER, let’s say 30 days? Will we loose any features at the moment it will connect the licensing server and does not have a valid license? (in case we can not renew/refresh at that time).
    Last question but not least. What would normally happen to our server (even if we get the connectivity back today), after 2023-12-31? Will our license become invalid? Will it auto-renew? Will we loose features? Just asking because if there would be any work anyway, we can plan it better.
    Thanks

    UPDATE1:
    So, after all the forum replies I was still unsure what happens. Some say I would loose all functionality after 2023-12-31 when it can not contact the activation server. 3CX CEO says: ‘your system will not work anymore after 31/12’.
    In the mean time, my manager is pushing me for an answer so I did a few things:
    Using Google, I came around a site name 3cxtruth.com, which is not that loyal to 3CX and the great phone system we are using, but it tells a lot about (old) activation servers, v18 Update 8, etc. However, I could not give untested information back to my manager, so I needed to test this myself;
    Past night, when nobody was at the office or using the system, I did a few things: First I made a snapshot of the server (great to have this new feature after the disaster recovery, we should have this earlier!). Then I changed the clock to 1 year in the future. I logged in to the server and it said that the subscribtion has been expired! But the license still shows active, standard and the expire date is still at 31-12-2023 (in the past). So I tested Ring groups, Call queues and even the Call Flows are all working! I also rebooted a few times and looked at the Logs. All is looking good.
    I can now clearly say nothing happens after 2023-12-31.
    Since the server is still not able to contact the activation server (because the Firewall and Reverse Proxy team is extremely busy after our outtage), I am afraid they might fix this without telling me this and I am not sure what the server will do, before or after 2023-12-31 when it could contact the 3CX servers. So I installed wireshark and asked my friend ChatGPT v4.0 for some clearification (they even have a very handy wireshark plugin!). Then it came with the following:
    To be sure the 3CX server can not contact the activation server, put this in your C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts file:
    Code:
    127.0.0.1 activate.3cx.com127.0.0.1 activation.3cx.com
    127.0.0.1 activate.3cx.us
    127.0.0.1 activation.3cx.us
    127.0.0.1 rps.3cx.com
    127.0.0.1 downloads-global.3cx.com
    127.0.0.1 webmeeting.3cx.com
    127.0.0.1 smtp-proxy.3cx.com

    Thanks for all the forum replies and everybodies effort. Now I tested this and can say clearly what happens and can decide ourself when to re-subscribe, re-activate or re-install the system without waking up with feature-less PBX.

    UPDATE2: This morning at the coffee machine I asked one of the old guys who is working here from the beginning and he had to laugh a little. He told me that we used to be a 3CX reseller (silver or brons) in the very early days and that this could even been that NFR license which might have been ‘reverted’ to Standard. I am telling this because it gives our story some context. At least, when 3CX server shows ‘Standard Annual’ in version 18.0 update 7, nothing happens when it can not reach the activation server after the expire date. TESTED!

    Reply

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