BA - a Computer Killer - or Another Reauthorization Pain

[marcL]

Yesterday I found out that both of my offline computers needed new CbB authorization. Okay, today I decided to "quickly" do it.

First I extracted one authorization request to an USB stick. Then, when I wanted to start BA (BandLab Assistent) on my laptop I couldn't find the Icon and the program. Finally I found an installer program in the AppData\Local folder. Starting the installer opened BA. I tried to process the offline authorization as I had done several times. The result was only an error message that said something like no access. Retries led to the same result! I was baffled! ☹️

I was angry and thought about abandon CbB. But then I gave it a last chance by reinstalling the latest version of BA and try again. Wow! This did the trick! But I think it's impossible for a user to understand why it did not work before. The error message was really unmeaning. The second authorization ran without problems.

Tonight when I logged into my laptop I was annoyed that the cpu cooler ran on full power, very loud! First I did ignore it, because I am used to such nasty things by Windows Update (another reason to have music computers offline). Because it did not stop even after a longer time, I opened the task manager and found out that there were 4 BA processes driving my cpu to 100%. And this although I did quit BA in the system menu (as one shoud do)! Wtf! Killing the 4 processes brought the cpu down to 1%! ?

What a pain, why is there not a simple web page for offline authorization as with most other software providers?

[scook]

BA is a multi-threaded program. Each thread shows up in the task manager.

There is an option on the settings page to launch the program when the PC starts up.

The same settings page has a Quit button to shut down the application.

"X"ing out of the program simply closes the UI; the program continues running without the UI.

There is an icon in the notification area with Quit in its context menu.

To access the settings page, click the gear in the upper left of the BA UI.

[hockeyjx]

I plug in a USB wifi to update all my programs and then unplug when done, Before you do that, you can make sure Windows won't update as well. I've never had any program spike my resources like that ...but I also don't have anything but necessary programs starting at startup.

Seems like you're trying to re-invent the wheel and failing miserably.

[John Vere]

The thing is Thousands of people use Cakewalk and have absolutely no issues with keeping it up to date and running. Those who do are seemingly trying to circumnavigate the system. 

[marcL]

13 hours ago, scook said:

The same settings page has a Quit button to shut down the application.

Thanks scook! But as I said I used exactly this "Quit button", because I was aware about what you say. Therefore I was really surprised that there were processes running nevertheless!

[marcL]

5 hours ago, John Vere said:

The thing is Thousands of people use Cakewalk and have absolutely no issues with keeping it up to date and running. Those who do are seemingly trying to circumnavigate the system. 

Yes, but most of those 1000s of people run Cakewalk on an ONLINE computer, i.e. they don't need BA anymore! Do you get it?!

I know that there is no issue anymore doing the reauthorization on an online computer! In my recording room I don't have any internet (pc1) and on my other music production pc I could avoid a lot of trouble by setting it offline (no more Windows update issues)!

[John Vere]

I am totally aware of the many reasons a DAW should be off line. I often unplug my Cable when I’m at the mixing stage and want every last bit of processing power without interruption. 
In my last home we had satellite internet which cost you dearly for bandwidth so I dreaded updating software and would go as long as possible before plugging back in and updating. I would often take it to my computer tech Sister-in-laws and do it there for free.

Needless to say I was not happy with Cakewalks new 6 month activation requirement. 

But I sort of see where they are coming from and it’s a small price to pay for free software.

Its the way of the modern world and nobody seems overly concerned about the few people who don’t have good internet access where they live. It is assumed we are always connected 24/7   

So still the best solution for Cakewalk as well as a few other Apps I depend on, is at least once a month connect and update stuff  it only takes a few minutes . 
If I still lived in my other house this would just be more of a hassle.  

In one place in my house there’s no LAN cables so when I was using that space I did the same as @hockeyjx

 

Edited April 18, 2022 by John Vere

[Bristol_Jonesey]

On 4/18/2022 at 12:40 AM, hockeyjx said:

I plug in a USB wifi to update all my programs and then unplug when done, Before you do that, you can make sure Windows won't update as well. I've never had any program spike my resources like that ...but I also don't have anything but necessary programs starting at startup.

Seems like you're trying to re-invent the wheel and failing miserably.

This is exactly what I do. Plug in for updates or authorisations, then unplug

[marcL]

On 4/18/2022 at 1:40 AM, hockeyjx said:

I plug in a USB wifi to update all my programs and then unplug when done, Before you do that, you can make sure Windows won't update as well. I've never had any program spike my resources like that ...but I also don't have anything but necessary programs starting at startup.

Seems like you're trying to re-invent the wheel and failing miserably.

I don't have Internet in my recording room, also no wifi, our house is about 70m away from it!

I also don't understand your comment about "re-invent the wheel", there is an offline authorization for CbB, but it requires BA!

[hockeyjx]

56 minutes ago, marled said:

I don't have Internet in my recording room, also no wifi, our house is about 70m away from it!

I also don't understand your comment about "re-invent the wheel", there is an offline authorization for CbB, but it requires BA!

Being an I.T., I can't imagine not having internet at a house  

I know they have an offline authorization, but as I said earlier, just easier for me to plug in the usb wifi go through all the updates on every program and pull the usb wifi adapter when done. I did not consider there were non-wifi places left ....or I perhaps thought there was a bit of paranoia(they already know everything about us anyway ? ). 

[John Vere]

My Daughter has a workshop on rural property that she put an office in. It was too far away from the house for Wi Fi. My son had a solution which was a gizmo from Amazon that you plugged into a wall socket near the internet in the house and then you plug the re transmitter part out in the shop. Worked brilliantly. There's both Wi Fi and ethernet versions. The ethernet version is like $50. The Wi Fi is about $80. 

It goes without saying that the shop has to share  the Mains panel and  Neutral bonding. Can't have it's own meter.   

Edited April 19, 2022 by John Vere

[Xoo]

24 minutes ago, John Vere said:

My Daughter has a workshop on rural property that she put an office in. It was too far away from the house for Wi Fi. My son had a solution which was a gizmo from Amazon that you plugged into a wall socket near the internet in the house and then you plug the re transmitter part out in the shop. Worked brilliantly. There's both Wi Fi and ethernet versions. The ethernet version is like $50. The Wi Fi is about $80. 

It goes without saying that the shop has to share  the Mains panel and  Neutral bonding. Can't have it's own meter.   

Networking over Mains - very useful but can be a complete pain (I have to use it at home as my home office/studio is away from the house, and it's fine...until it's not and I have to walk back in to power cycle the NoMs).

[Will.]

On 4/19/2022 at 10:27 PM, marled said:

I don't have Internet in my recording room, also no wifi, our house is about 70m away from it!

I also don't understand your comment about "re-invent the wheel", there is an offline authorization for CbB, but it requires BA!

Or - you can just buy a USB simcard modem/dongle? You can find it anywhere - they're like $5-15 and purchase a 10/20/40/50/100GB (what you can afford) internet data just for your CbB updates every (2nd) month. 

 

Edited April 24, 2022 by Will.

[John Vere]

Cell Network data I think is very pricey compared to Cable or Fiber optic internet. And in my Daughters case,  as for many rural people, there’s no cell service for miles around. 
If you want to use cell network data you can also just make your phone a hot spot. 

[Starship Krupa]

What I did with my outbuilding was get a roll of Cat 6 cable and run it hard wired. The cable is rated for burial, but for the underground parts I used plastic conduit, then ran it along the fence line to keep it out of sight.

I put an RJ-45 biscuit jack at each end, the cable came with a little plastic punch-down tool.

[Will.]

16 hours ago, John Vere said:

Cell Network data I think is very pricey compared to Cable or Fiber optic internet. And in my Daughters case,  as for many rural people, there’s no cell service for miles around. 
If you want to use cell network data you can also just make your phone a hot spot. 

This depends on your state and country. It might be expensive in your state and country - sure! It can also be cheaper in another.

Both cable and cellular data are pretty cheap in my country all networks and even fibre.

$1 for 5GB cellular data a month? Thats cheap. That is why I brought this up - it might be affordable in @marled country too.