License

Your licence is perpetual: bought once, it is yours and does not expire. Every update of the version line you bought (for example every 1.x version of V1) is included for life, at no extra cost. A future major version (V2) will be a paid upgrade.

The gateway checks the licence with our licence server about once a day. It is built so that an outage on our side never stops your SMS for long:

• during your first 12 months, the gateway keeps sending through any outage of up to 30 days (15 days of validity of its local token, then 15 days of grace), and resumes by itself at the next successful check;
• once you have held the licence for 12 months, the gateway works for ever without contacting us, even if our server disappears;
• only an explicit, signed withdrawal (for example after a refund) stops sending immediately.

The licence is shown in License, in the System section of the menu, and summarised in Settings > License.

Activate the gateway

A new installation asks for the key before anything else: a window titled Activate this gateway opens on every screen until a key is entered (the License screen itself stays reachable).

1. Find your key in your customer area on our website, or in the delivery email.
2. Type or paste it in Licence key. The format is XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX; spaces, dashes and lowercase are accepted.
3. Click Activate.

The first activation needs an internet connection to our server. After that, the gateway renews its licence on its own; see below how long it can do without us. Only a Superadmin can activate or re-check the licence.

What the gateway sends us, and what it never sends

When it checks the licence, the gateway sends only: the key, the version line and version of the gateway, a fingerprint of the machine (a one-way hash, not a hardware identifier), the number of paired phones and a check counter. Never a message, a number, a contact or a log. A gateway with no key never contacts us at all.

How the check works

• After activation, the gateway holds a signed local token, valid for 15 days. It renews it silently about once a day, so in normal operation the token never gets close to its date.
• If our server does not answer, the gateway tries again later: after 15 minutes, 1 hour, 6 hours, then every 24 hours, for ever. Sending continues in the meantime.
• If the token passes its date without being renewed, a 15-day grace period opens. Sending still continues, and a banner shows the date on which sending will pause if no check succeeds by then.
• If the grace period ends too, and the licence is less than 12 months old, sending pauses until the next successful check (see below). The gateway then retries at least every hour.
• The token carries, signed by us, the date on which your licence reaches 12 months. The gateway compares that date with its own clock: once it is reached, it no longer needs to reach us at all, even if it has not been able to contact us for months. The screen then shows This licence is yours unconditionally.
• Setting the machine clock back does not extend any of these dates: the gateway keeps a check counter and the latest time it has seen, and never goes backwards.

What the License screen shows

The status

A licence held for 12 months or more shows Licence active whatever the state of our server.

Contact with our activation server

This block describes our attempts: Activation server reachable or Activation server unreachable, with No answer since, Last attempt, Last successful contact and Next attempt. An unreachable server is never an invalid licence: during your first 12 months it only matters if it lasts past the grace period. Check now (Superadmin) forces an attempt immediately; when sending is paused, a successful check resumes it at once.

What your key allows

Check log

Check log lists every contact attempt, newest first, with its Result:

When our server is unreachable

The Activity log records when our licence server stops answering and, later, how long the outage lasted. Your tools can follow the same facts with the license.offline and license.reconnected webhook events. If notifications are on, the administrators are also told when sending pauses.

While sending is paused

• Messages already queued wait in the queue: nothing is failed or lost. New messages, from the dashboard, campaigns, automatic replies or the API, are accepted and wait with them.
• Reception, conversations, contacts, the dashboard, API reads and every other setting keep working.
• Sending resumes by itself at the next successful check, with the queued messages leaving first. The gateway retries at least every hour; Check now forces a check at once.
• What to do: check that the machine reaches the internet (and our licence server through any firewall or proxy). If our server is the one down, contact support.

An answer that the gateway cannot verify (a proxy error page, a captive portal, a forged answer) is treated exactly like no answer: it can never withdraw your licence.

Moving to another machine

The licence holds one machine at a time, identified by its fingerprint.

• Moving with your data, following Changing server without losing the gateway's secret key, keeps the fingerprint: there is nothing to do.
• On a new installation, enter your key. If the old machine still holds the activation, the gateway reports that the licence is already in use on another machine and the check log shows Different machine fingerprint. The new gateway sends for 15 days, then pauses sending until it obtains its own token, whatever the age of the licence: the 12-month rule only applies to a machine that has itself obtained a token. To release the old machine, use Regenerate key in your customer area: every machine is freed, the old key stops working, and you enter the new key on the new gateway. You can also contact support.
• A copy of the database restored on another machine does not carry the licence with it: the token belongs to the machine that obtained it, so the copy follows the same rule as a new installation.

A withdrawn licence

A licence is withdrawn only by a decision our server signs, for example after a refund. In that case:

• sending stops immediately, whatever the age of the licence (quick send, campaigns, automatic replies, API sends);
• reading and exporting your data stay open: conversations, contacts, history, existing backups and exports remain accessible, so you can always take your data with you;
• the screen shows Enter your key again: if you contested the withdrawal and won, typing the key here is the way out. Contact support to contest.

With the API

Activation and check need a Superadmin session or a key with the admin scope. POST /license/activate also lets you replace the key of an active installation, for example after regenerating your key in your customer area.

Troubleshooting