Packet Analyzer Licensing

Packet Analyzer has two licensing methods:

Per Seat Licensing - You use per seat licensing when you have a set of users who are using Packet Analyzer on a regular basis and cannot tolerate limited access. Network administrators responsible for analyzing and troubleshooting a network are often given per seat licensing. Per seat licensing assigns an individual license to each installation of Packet Analyzer. The assigned license is permanently associated with the Packet Analyzer installation. Packet Analyzer launches without needing access to any sort of license server.

Concurrent Licensing - You use concurrent licensing when you have a set of users who need access to Packet Analyzer on an occasional basis. Users who might analyze packet traces or access NetShark data infrequently are good candidates for concurrent licensing. Also if you have users around the world who do not need to access Packet Analyzer at the same time concurrent licensing is a good option.

For concurrent licensing to work you must have a license server with valid Packet Analyzer licenses assigned to it. NetProfiler, NetExpress, and NetShark can all act as valid license servers. When Packet Analyzer launches the user specifies the appropriate license server and Packet Analyzer attempts to retrieve a license from that system. Licenses are assigned to a Packet Analyzer installation for up to 24 hours, with licenses expiring at midnight on the license server. Once a license is assigned to a Packet Analyzer instance there is no way to release the license and additional communication between the Packet Analyzer instance and the license server is not required. You can use Packet Analyzer offline with no issues.