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Steps to Activate ShortPoint License Without Making Your Farm Public (No DNS Changes)

  1. Decide on the domain. For example http://abc.contoso.com 

    • Need not be "https", you can configure it without SSL too (http).
    • You do not need to configure it in your DNS, It's only a domain name you need to use and provide to us.

  1. Provide this domain to your ShortPoint account manager.

  2. Your ShortPoint account manager will activate the license for you for that domain (abc.contoso.com)

  • You need to wait until you hear back from the Account Manager that they have completed an activation for that domain.

  1. Decide on the machine from where you will be activating ShortPoint. It should have an internet connection to be able to connect with ShortPoint web service.

  • This machine need not be your server only, it can even be your laptop.

  1. In that machine, open hosts file using below steps:

  • Open notepad as administrator

  • Go to this path C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc

  • Open file called hosts (If you can't find this file, make sure your file search filter is set to ALL files and not only TXT ones) in notepad instance you opened

  1. Add host for entry as follows
    <Local IP of your SharePoint Server><Press Tab from your keyboard>
    abc.contoso.com

  • There is a tab after IP and before hostname

  • This need not be public IP, it should be your local area network IP only 

  • Your machine should be connected to same LAN to be able to access that IP

  1. In your SharePoint server, make sure you configure alternate access mapping for  https://abc.contoso.com with your web application.

  2. Then you can try the activation of ShortPoint from ShortPoint SPFx dashboard.


FAQ

How does it work?


On the license page, from the client side (browser where you are accessing), we check the host name of the URL and we query to ShortPoint whether we have any active license for that domain? If yes, we activate the license on that site. 




What domains are acceptable?


In simple language, local domain names are the domains which is resolved internally inside your Local Area Networks such as:


http://sharepoint

http://portal

http://sp

http://intranet


These kinds of domains are not unique and not acceptable by ShortPoint. We accept public domain / hosts such as:


https://contoso.com

https://sp.contoso.com

http://sharepoint.contoso.ae


Do I have to do it on all machines?


No, it's only from the machine where you are going to perform activation. Once ShortPoint is activated, you don't need to access the site from that domain. 


When do I have to perform these steps?


You need to do these changes each time when you have changes in your license. Example:

  • At the end of year when you want to upgrade your license

  • During year, when you want to modify the license (ex change user)


Do I need the internet to do this activation?


Yes, the internet is required from the machine where you are planning to activate the license. It’s not necessarily required from the server. 


Do I need to do anything on users’ devices?


No, no change is required from the users' devices. They can access the site from the local LAN url the way they used to.

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