eEye Digital Security

Hi,

I have a 3 computer license for Blink Personal.

I had used all three license and all went well untill,

My 13 year old son got on my laptop, and after managing to get  massive multiple virus/maleware infections, I had no choice but to do a complete reinstall.

The taskbar and the desktop icons would actually disapear and reapear.

The whole time this was happening Blink was postiong messages of stoping a suspecious protocol (windows explorer).

eventually I was able to get blink maleware to run and catch the infections but, nothing changed, I was still having the same desktop effects and blink warnings. At this point I knew there was only 1 thing to do, a complete format/ reinstall of windows.

I was not able to navigate thru any files/ programs/.etc or control panel. all were rendered useless.

No luck with an attempt using safe mode. I later learned my son had intentionaly disabled blink to d/l and install a mod for  the game STALKER.

Finally I gave up and did a complete reinstall.

Blink Personal has run and performed great on all three of my puters i have no issues with that.

My issue is this:

Blink will not accept my license on the laptop now. I am assuming this is because i was not able to remove it first?

blink thinks that all three license are in use when actually there are only two in use.

So my question is How do i get Blink to accept my license now?

Perfect example of Blink or any security program not being able to protect us from ourselves so to speak...

Well unless you make it so you cannot disable it...

As for licensing since you are a paid user I would contact their support department and let them tell you the best possible way to handle this..

Kenneth Nelson:

I later learned my son had intentionaly disabled blink to d/l and install a mod for  the game STALKER.

      This is the situation where the password protection feature that is available in the Professional Edition would prove nice if it existed on the Personal Edition.
 

Yeah, the password-protection feature would be a nice addition to Blink Personal for home users who have kids (like Kenneth and me)!  I wonder if this type of situation might also be addressed by establishing a separate user account for the son which doesn't have full access to Blink and its processes.  This might interfere with Blink running properly under the son's account, though, which would defeat the purpose.  I'm not confident that Windows' user account controls are really able to do this effectively and keep Blink running right while the son is signed on.

Another approach could be to set up a virtualized install of Windows on the box for the son's use under VMWare or Parallels, which would really sandbox any infection he could introduce.  If the virtual machine file can be separately backed up and restored, then you wouldn't have to wipe the Windows install every time an infection occurs; you'd just restore the vm file that the son gets to use.  There's probably a whole topic that could be devoted to Blink and virtualization, though! 
 

greenwapiti:

wonder if this type of situation might also be addressed by establishing a separate user account for the son which doesn't have full access to Blink and its processes.

     That would work.  I know I use a limited user account on a daily basis, Blink works fine, besides the fact that I can make changes to it (just can't update it).  If they configured it later on to allow only admin accounts to make changes then it will be good to go!  I am sure once things smooth out they can work on such features.

greenwapiti:

Another approach could be to set up a virtualized install of Windows on the box for the son's use under VMWare or Parallels, which would really sandbox any infection he could introduce.

     Yep and Blink does work well in XP in Parallels, I have tried it.  Another great completely free open source Virtual program is Virtual Box at http://virtualbox.org
 

Well 3 days later after my initial post, and no reply from eEye support.

Kenneth,

Apologies for the delay.  I will contact you directly to gather some additional information, and with this we should be able to resolve it quickly.  Just a few notes in regards to the licensing component that the enforces the number of installations:

1) Based on the hardware configuration, you should be able to reinstall on the same host without affecting the count.

 
2) Ideally, if you would like to transfer the license from one host to another, you should use the "License Management" wizard:

a) Help -> License Management

b) Select "Transfer License"

c) On the next page, select the checkbox "Yes, I would like to remove my license from this machine."

Of course, it is not always possible to properly transfer a license or sometimes despite reinstalling it on what appears to be the same host, a hardware modification might have been enough to identify it as a different machine.  Regardless, we will work with you to reset it for you.

Thank you.

I have recieved an email from tech support, hopefully this problem will be resolved shortly.

While waiting for a solution, I have in the meantime installed a free version of Blink PE (Beta 3.1) on my laptop.

It is running just fine.

Tried to update liscense again, no luck.

Did you install the final release?

Regards,

Art 

Blink Personal BETA Version 3.1.0, Rule version 1406
AntiVirus Version 1.0.163
Vulnerability Scanner version 5.8.4, Audits version 1690

Maybe installing the final version (not the BETA) would help? Christopher posted the link here:

http://forums.eeye.com/forums/p/133/524.aspx#524 

Best regards,

Art 

I am having the same problem.  It is the same license on the same laptop, but it won't accept the license.  Option (1) would be my best bet except it doesn’t work.  How do I go about getting the “reset” that you described?

Thank you. 

Hi Jerod,

This is due to your license hitting the 3 license count you've purchased. When an uninstall occurs 1 license count is freed up, but if a machine gets "blown away", you lose one and thus we'll have to free up 1 or more of your used licenses.

I believe I've located you in the system. Please confirm the last 5 of your serial number.

Thank you.

Brian