ZBrushCentral

Firewall can interfere with activation

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

I suspect most people have now activated Z2, so this information maybe irrelevant, but my Norton Firewall messed up my first try. While the activation process was underway, a Norton screen popped up telling me of an incoming TCP communication, recommending that it should be blocked. I clicked to block, but by this time the interruption appeared to have caused the activation process to crash. I tried Z2, but it was not activated.

I had a choice of disabling Norton firewall, which I had no intentions of doing while on the net, or go into Norton and add a rule in system wide settings to block all incoming TCP and UDP communications. This meant it would deal with them in the background without interrupting with screens requiring a decision to be made. The activation went through with no problems then, even though the Norton alert tracker was popping out from the side of the screen as it dealt with unwanted connections.

My Laptop which I use more often than my desktop machine now, as it is in all ways superior, in power, screen display, memory etc, I have as yet not connected it to the net, and will not do so unless I really have to at any time. I activated Z2 on that by telephone, the lady at Element 5 was very helpful and professional, it was done probably almost as quickly as on line. I wish I had done both by telephone, I am sure the cost of the calls will be nowhere near the cost of the premium line 60p a minute support calls, that I had to pay to Hewlett Packard while my old desktop computer was under it’s years warranty.

Just a question on the backup of the application data, how much do we backup, the whole All Users folder, or just the element 5\Licenses, then if we do a reformat do we just restore this after the reformat from the backup CD or external storage, and then will Z2 run as normal. I also presume this means a proper backup as opposed to just saving the folders/files and replacing them after a reformat.

Thanks to Matthew, Ofer and all the Pixologic staff for all their work on turning out the new version, and their efforts to improve the registration system. I have had little time yet to try the new Z, but I look forward to all the new features.

Dave

#2

Thank you, Dave!

Regarding the backup, you want to save the file along with your email containing the POP code. You can save it to any location you’d like. Later, when you reinstall your OS, simply look in the email to see where to put the file back to.

I personally would save the whole Element 5 folder. That way, there’s no need to reconstruct the folders later if/when you need to restore the file.

#3

Thanks for the information on the files Matthew, a much better system for registration and continuity. Well it’s time to get some work in on Z2, lot’s of new bit’s to learn.
Dave