Hello,

I have two PCs in a LAN (connected by a hardware-router), one for testing software (the older one) and surfing and one for productive working (the newer one). Both have Poser 4 + ProPack + Poser 5 installed (latest patches for both). As far as i know it is allowed to install Poser on two or more PCs with one licence as long as only one installation is running at the same time.

The problem is:
When i start only the newer one of the two PCs Poser 4 or 5 doesn't start. It quits again immediately after starting without reporting an error. Poser also stops working, when i turn off the older PC during working on the newer. First time when this appeared it i thought the installation was damaged and completely reinstalled Poser 4, ProPack, Poser 5 + all the patches - two hours work for nothing.
It is ok that a software checks throgh LAN if there a more than one instances running at the same time but it is not acceptable that the software doesn't work when the other PC is turned off or when there is no LAN available.

I had reported this already to Curious Labs customer service. The answer was:

It sounds like there may be some installation problem here. Poser does not REQUIRE the presence of a LAN to run, it simply publishes the serial number to the LAN in to check for duplicates. I woud recommend uninstalling and reinstalling the software on each machine. Note that it is not recommended you install it on one and then copy the installation to another PC. The installer needs to add some registry entries for Poser to function properly.

I would recommend disconnection the systems from the LAN when you install. Then launch and serialize Poser on each machine to verify proper functioning. Then connect each machine to the LAN and see if the problematic behavior returns. If so there problem would appear to be in the networking software. Note also that Poser will still run if denied access to the newtork.
<<

I deinstalled and reinstalled again: No difference.

By the way: Since i have installed hundreds of models in my runtime directory i didn't delete the runtime directory (which i had copied from the older PC to the new one). I only deinstalled the applications and cleared the root directory of Poser 4 and Poser 5 before reinstalling.

**Does anyone have the same problems?
Is there any workaround for that?
Is it a PACE problem?
Is there any specific file i have to delete (maybe in another directory?) or are there specific lines in the registry i have to delete in order to make a clean new installation?

**Any suggestion appreciated ...

Hrm...when I had my two systems shared: I had Zone Alarm as a firewall and 'denied the Poser exe access to the web', that seemed to take care of the program searching the network for like serials. I was able to get load/save .pz3's from my shared computer, although I never tried to set it up so it would access the Runtime off the other system (its probably possible somehow), and of course Poser can't do network rendering like Bryce, etc. I've no idea how your LAN is setup and I'm at all tech inclined, just throwing out my simple fix in case it helps...good luck! :o)

THX for your suggestion but I use Zone Alarm already. No matter whether i allow accessing Poser the network and/or internet or not: Without my older PC running Poser quits immediately after starting. I think it might be a PACE problem because i also have some Pinnacle Products installed which use PACE too.

I'd run into this problem with Poser, and several other programs such as MS Word and Adobe PhotoShop. The problem was actually caused because I insisted on turning my wife's computer off while she was out of town for two weeks. Our printer was hooked up to my wife's computer, and these programs would not load because they couldn't find the printer on my wife's computer. There are a few easy solutions: 1.) Never turn off the computer that has the printer hooked up to it. 2.) Get a cheap printer for each computer on the network. 3.) Buy a printer server. The printer(s) would be hooked up to this device, and you would never turn off the server.

;-))

Wouldn't it be nice to get error messages, like 'Printer not found'. I bet you could have solved your problem in a minute with that info.

We have two computers and a shared printer. We just use a plain old AB(data transfer) switch with a parallel port cable. It works fine for us.

I wonder if a "Generic Printer Driver" (text only) set to go "To File" instead of LPT1: would have done the same job without requiring an actual printer? Just a thought, for future bodies with this problem to try. Cliff

well glad you foudn the bug.. see how informatic and computer are an illogical matter (while based on exact sciences themselves)... i too had crazy hardware conflicts i couldn't even figure about, and i am a bit knowfull of my sstem, though. in case this thign happen again or ANY similar things to you, i have an advice: watchout at Sysinternals for their diagnostic/monitoring tools. I have the trio of them (process9x, filemon and regmon) adn whenever i have strange errors, i just spy my system to understand what/where it went wrong. think abotu it, it helps

Zed, I am very happy to help. I'm just sorry you had to go through so much in the process of discovering the problem and solution.

You could download the Postscript driver from Adobe and set that to file, or what about the Windows Fax printer?

The reason(s) I thought of the "generic printr driver" that comes with windows are that: A) It comes with Widnows - so no need to search very far. B) It produces text files - which can be handy if you have a program that produces reams of text to print out but doesn't have a "save to file" option. So one prints to this "printer driver" set to file instead, and opens the text document produced in Wordpad (or Word or...). Occasionally handy.

I never could figure out why programs like Poser insisted on finding a printer before they'd load. Hell, I hardly ever print anything. I never print any of my Poser artwork. This problem existed with Poser, MS Word, Adobe PhotoShop, Ulead PhotoImpact (more?) None of the programs had the decency to provide a simple error message indicating the problem. The least they could do is say "I'm sorry, but I refuse to run because I can't find a printer."

You trying to do tech. support staff out of their jobs? . Tsk! Computers that tell you what's wrong. .