Timothy
Parker Consulting Incorporated
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WRQ’s Express Meter Tracking licenses over a large network manually is an annoying and often impossible task. Some software license managers will track some packages, but not all, and seldom work across all platforms. Finding a convenient, easy manner of tracking licenses and metering those licenses when you purchase limited seats is what WRQ’s Express Meter is all about. With corporate emphasis on doing licenses right, on using only the number of seats actually paid for, and making sure a company is completely legal, a package like Express Meter is practically mandatory. WRQ is best known for their superb X client software packages for Windows. Express Meter is a Windows-based package, too. Within it, you can specify which software applications you want to track, and all specifics about that software that relate to licenses. Express Meter can monitor both local machine and network-wide launches of the packages it tracks. If a user tries to exceed your licensed number of seats, Express Meter prevents the package from launching. Alternatively, you can have Express Meter simply warn the user that the number of licenses is exceeded, and proceed anyway. If you want Express Meter to be totally passive, you can use it to log all application launches and take no role in enforcing limits. Installation of Express Meter is fast. The supplied CD-ROM installs on Windows 95 and Windows NT machines. A serial number and password are requested, then the software installs on a shared or networked drive. During the installation, you specify the type of network in use (practically every network is supported), and that allows Express Meter to watch network-wide launches. After the software is installed, a simple routine lets you add the applications to be monitored. A name is given to each application, and the path to the launch binary specified, even across a network. A site license or number of concurrent users is specified. Express Meter allows you to monitor suites, either as a whole unit for counting licenses or for individual components within the larger suite. A set of radio buttons let you do nothing, warn a user when licenses are exceeded, or prevent their launching the application. After that, you can set up groups with specific access to applications if you want. A client package sits on each machine that can launch an applications. Clients are provided only for Windows and DOS machines. The user interface for Express Meter is a simple window that shows all monitored software and its current state. On our test network we placed Express Meter on an ALR Revolution 2XL running Windows NT 4.0 and monitored a set of two dozen applications across the network. As long as a binary is launched from a recognized directory, Express Meter can count it. Throughout the test period it accurately monitored the number of licenses in use, even on Unix platforms that are mounted through NFS or use Windows packages like Wabi. A handy little utility supplied with Express Meter is MiniMail. This replaces the Microsoft Mail minimized window that requires a user license to be tied up while monitoring for incoming mail. MiniMail frees up that license and monitors the mail box. When incoming mail arrives, MiniMail alerts you and lets you launch Mail (and use one of the licenses available). This type of application is ideal for corporations that do not buy a license for each user on the network, yet want to try and remain connected and legal. With a relatively low per-desktop cost, Express Meter can be rolled out across all your Windows platforms. Express Meter will find a useful home in any network that contains regulated, user-license or site license based software. Its interface is clean and easy to use, the network overhead is minimal, and it allows your company to remain legal (if you set it to do so). With today’s emphasis on piracy and illegal license crackdowns, Express Meter is a great way to keep on the proper side of the law. While there are no Unix-specific clients yet, for a Windows NT server based network, Express Meter is excellent. |
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