Surveillance Station Pro - only provide 1 free IPcam licence

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JoeJoeJoe
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Re: Surveillance Station Pro - only provide 1 free IPcam lic

Post by JoeJoeJoe »

The non-Pro version is still included, it works as well as it ever did.

The users just have to be very specific on which camera they buy, they might have to go to ebay to find old out dated cameras, otherwise they won't be able to find any.
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Re: Surveillance Station Pro - only provide 1 free IPcam lic

Post by doktornotor »

JoeJoeJoe wrote:The non-Pro version is still included, it works as well as it ever did.

The users just have to be very specific on which camera they buy, they might have to go to ebay to find old out dated cameras, otherwise they won't be able to find any.
Sorry, not an acceptable solution, for reasons already specified above and further detailed in Surveillance Station Pro Assistance thread. Also, the non-Pro package being still there at the moment does not mean it is going to be there on next FW release, or that it is gonna be working - or even installable - on the next release. Common sense suggests that noone likes to maintain two things for the same purpose - so the non-Pro version of SS is pretty likely to get completely broken in a couple of FW releases. Abandonware is not really maintained anywhere. Be it QNAP or anyone else.

Noone forced QNAP into providing "free" licenses (not really free, the price tag on QNAP units is hefty enough) with their products. If they did so, they need to abide by that decision and the contract - as those licenses provided have been a major decision factor for the customers on the time they made their purchase.

Executive summary - tired of similar corporate practices really.
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Re: Surveillance Station Pro - only provide 1 free IPcam lic

Post by P3R »

doktornotor wrote:Abandonware...
:lol: Sad but very true.

If modern cameras aren't added to the old software (which of course is extremely unlikely), Qnap are obviously just trying to sneak out of the agreement in a less visible way. I'm just waiting for the first American to take legal actions...

In my opinion the honest thing for Qnap to do here would be to:
Continue to introduce support for new cameras into the old Surveillance Station
OR
Allow everyone with older models to use Surveillance Station Pro with the number of licenses they have already paid for.

If Qnap find the second alternative too costly they could make those old licenses valid for only a limited mode in SS Pro that feature-wise is equivallent to the old software. That I think most users would find acceptable and they wouldn't have to maintain/support two different applications.
RAID have never ever been a replacement for backups. Without backups on a different system (preferably placed at another site), you will eventually lose data!

A non-RAID configuration (including RAID 0, which isn't really RAID) with a backup on a separate media protects your data far better than any RAID-volume without backup.

All data storage consists of both the primary storage and the backups. It's your money and your data, spend the storage budget wisely or pay with your data!
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Re: Surveillance Station Pro - only provide 1 free IPcam lic

Post by .:Plasma:. »

doktornotor wrote:No one forced QNAP into providing "free" licenses (not really free, the price tag on QNAP units is hefty enough) with their products. If they did so, they need to abide by that decision and the contract - as those licenses provided have been a major decision factor for the customers on the time they made their purchase.
It was a HUGE influencing factor before I bought my NAS (all my mates have the main competitors NAS). I checked in the pre-sales forum on here before buying, and was advised that anyone with 4 Camera's configured would be migrated to the new system with 4 licenses, so I went ahead and purchased a TS-459 Pro. Only to find out what I was told was complete $h1t and I've actually had my trousers pulled down!!

[RANT] Had I known what I know now, I would have gone with the competitor and paid the extra for their licenses which would have been around the same price as what I paid for my QNAP. I looked at QNAP as being more SMB and the competitors as being aimed more at home users, with that in mind I figured the QNAP would be worth the extra money for what seemed like extra functionality and better support :evil: . As it turns out AirPrint doesn't function as I expected, TimeMachine is a bit flakey and unreliable, can't use iTunes Server as the Apple TV only uses the new "Home Sharing" which the NAS also doesn't support, and all these issues with the Surveillance Station and the camera support, plus other problems has me well and truly wishing I'd made a better choice. [/RANT]

That said if QNAP were to honor the statements made regarding this and provide FREE Pro license upgrades to the current owners I might be persuaded to change my mind, assuming my other support issue currently under investigation is also rectified. However I'm not holding my breath for a resolution on the Licenses, I think their head is, as previously said, stuck firmly in the sand!

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JoeJoeJoe
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Re: Surveillance Station Pro - only provide 1 free IPcam lic

Post by JoeJoeJoe »

doktornotor wrote:
JoeJoeJoe wrote:The non-Pro version is still included, it works as well as it ever did.

The users just have to be very specific on which camera they buy, they might have to go to ebay to find old out dated cameras, otherwise they won't be able to find any.
Sorry, not an acceptable solution, for reasons already specified above and further detailed in Surveillance Station Pro Assistance thread. Also, the non-Pro package being still there at the moment does not mean it is going to be there on next FW release, or that it is gonna be working - or even installable - on the next release. Common sense suggests that noone likes to maintain two things for the same purpose - so the non-Pro version of SS is pretty likely to get completely broken in a couple of FW releases. Abandonware is not really maintained anywhere. Be it QNAP or anyone else.

Noone forced QNAP into providing "free" licenses (not really free, the price tag on QNAP units is hefty enough) with their products. If they did so, they need to abide by that decision and the contract - as those licenses provided have been a major decision factor for the customers on the time they made their purchase.

Executive summary - tired of similar corporate practices really.
Oh I know, I wasn't saying it was an acceptable practice, it is what they have turned to.

After trying the SS Pro software, I would say the non-pro version is actually better, just with less camera support. The pro version is not worth paying for, its that bad.

With the 'free' licenses they could have kept the 'free' actually 'free' if they wanted to, as they were almost limiting the number of licenses for each unit to the number of drive bays it comes with.

My 419P is limited to 4 cameras, and the 219P+ was limited to 2, even though its a more powerful NAS unit.
Now with SS-Pro, they allow me to have 8 cameras on the 219P+. Which I think is possible as long it doesn't continually record and is only fed the recording triggers by the alarm events.

So QNAP could for example give the 2 'free' SS-pro licenses to the 219P unit and allow me to buy upto 6 more licenses.

I would've been ok with that.
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Re: Surveillance Station Pro - only provide 1 free IPcam lic

Post by dasgata »

I have a theory.

QNAP and Synology are one and the same company disguised as two. I mean, they are two companies but my theory is that behind the curtains, they are one. Why?

1 - Their products are very similar, extremely actually
2 - Both give only one free IP camera license and both recently did the unspeakable move to release firmwares REMOVING the licenses of previous firmwares that had more (4) free licenses to now only the default 1 free license
3 - Both seem not to care much about what their customers say about them
4 - Both are located in Taipei (World HQ), one being founded in 2000 but produced its first NAS in 2004 and the other founded in 2004 and produced its first NAS in 2006
5 - Both use PSU's that have annoying noisy 40mm x 40mm fan

And, the ultimate proof that they are the same. Some days ago, I was browsing this forum, QNAP forum, and I needed to visit Synology forum to get some info for a post that I was preparing to post here. Upon trying to reach the Synology forum, it was down. Then I came back to QNAP forum and guess what, it had just gone down too. No, my internet connection was ok because I also thought that, hey... this is not possible, my internet connection must be the one down, then I tried to reach google page and it reached without a problem.

So, they even seem to share the same forum servers...

Conspiracy theory, yes, but for me it makes sense. There is no competition between them, but instead agreements and we can complain and yell about extra exorbitant costs for camera licenses, they will not care.

I had ordered a QNAP TS-869 PRO. My 1st impression about it was great, but there was a little small problem. Its PSU fan had an horrible, irritating, constant noise so I had to return it. I was then thinking about buying the Synology 1812+ but after reading tons of things about QNAP x Synology I came to this conclusion: for me, under my point of view, they are just the same.

So, I am not buying anything QNAP or Synology ... and I'm stuck and I don't know what to do ... because I could not find anything similar to QNAP TS-869 PRO and Synology 1812+ in the market, and that's why they, QNAP and Synology, do what they do, they expect me to give up and end buying their product because of their uniqueness (features/price), despite their bad manners towards customers. Well, they may have a point.
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Re: Surveillance Station Pro - only provide 1 free IPcam lic

Post by schumaku »

LoL ... the only truth? They buy power supplies from the similar reliable sources. Even other sources are making use of 40 mm fans, too. Why? Because of the power supplies are manufactured in standard sizes - ie. for 1 unit rack-mount units ... larger fans don't fit, smaller fans don't make sense.
thecore
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Re: Surveillance Station Pro - only provide 1 free IPcam lic

Post by thecore »

Hi all,

Sorry for my dumb question, is there anyone here know how to add/purchase surveillance license, I have checked link below, but seems there is no further information about it except we have to create an account first, I don`t want to create it right now.

https://license.qnap.com/

Thank you in advance

Best Regards,
thecore
Last edited by thecore on Wed Dec 12, 2012 4:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Surveillance Station Pro - only provide 1 free IPcam lic

Post by schumaku »

[quote="thecore"]Sorry for my dumb question, is there anyone here know how to add/purchase surveillance license, I have checked link below, but seems there is no further information about it. https://license.qnap.com//quote] Use (left top): License Purchase -> Turbo NAS
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Re: Surveillance Station Pro - only provide 1 free IPcam lic

Post by TheAncient »

1. Are there any new developments in regards to QNAPs decision to remove the functionality I paid for? (Being able to use 4 cameras)
2. Some posts in this thread suggest that it is possible to use the latest NAS firmware with the original, 4 license version of Surveillance station rather than with the new, 1 license version of Surveillance station PRO. However, QNAP support advised me that ".... With FW 3.8, you can only use 1 camera because it now uses surveillance station Pro. You will have to buy licenses for the other 3 camera slot if you want to use them. If you want to use all 4 camera, you have to downgrade back to FW version 3.7.3 and use surveillance station...". In other words, they have bundled the surveillance station application software with the NAS firmware and you cannot upgrade one without the other. Could someone please clarify if there IS a way to use the latest firmware but still use the original, 4 license version of surveillance Station. (I'm using a TS-559 Pro II Turbo NAS)
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Re: Surveillance Station Pro - only provide 1 free IPcam lic

Post by schumaku »

TheAncient wrote:However, QNAP support advised me that ".... With FW 3.8, you can only use 1 camera because it now uses surveillance station Pro. You will have to buy licenses for the other 3 camera slot if you want to use them. If you want to use all 4 camera, you have to downgrade back to FW version 3.7.3 and use surveillance station...". ... (I'm using a TS-559 Pro II Turbo NAS)
No, you don't have to. Legacy Surveillance Station remains available - the exception are the TS-x69 NAS models AFAIK, as these always came with Surveillance Station Pro.
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Re: Surveillance Station Pro - only provide 1 free IPcam lic

Post by LarsN »

TheAncient wrote:1. Are there any new developments in regards to QNAPs decision to remove the functionality I paid for? (Being able to use 4 cameras)
2. Some posts in this thread suggest that it is possible to use the latest NAS firmware with the original, 4 license version of Surveillance station rather than with the new, 1 license version of Surveillance station PRO. However, QNAP support advised me that ".... With FW 3.8, you can only use 1 camera because it now uses surveillance station Pro. You will have to buy licenses for the other 3 camera slot if you want to use them. If you want to use all 4 camera, you have to downgrade back to FW version 3.7.3 and use surveillance station...". In other words, they have bundled the surveillance station application software with the NAS firmware and you cannot upgrade one without the other. Could someone please clarify if there IS a way to use the latest firmware but still use the original, 4 license version of surveillance Station. (I'm using a TS-559 Pro II Turbo NAS)
You can still use the surveillance station with four cameras, sadly not the pro version though. This was a management decision and you'd have to bring it up with them, as there's very little anyone else here can do to influence a change.
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Re: Surveillance Station Pro - only provide 1 free IPcam lic

Post by TheAncient »

Lars:
I passed your reply on to the tech support person I was dealing with before and he has promised to look into IF this can be done and to advise me as to HOW it can be done. Once I hear back from him, I will post the reply here. (I believe it would be useful to others reading this topic to find out HOW to run the latest firmware but still use the original, 4 license version of surveillance Station.)
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Re: Surveillance Station Pro - only provide 1 free IPcam lic

Post by schumaku »

TheAncient wrote:I believe it would be useful to others reading this topic to find out HOW to run the latest firmware but still use the original, 4 license version of surveillance Station.
Nothing special at all: Just update to the v3.8.x firmware, it is still coming with the legacy Surveillance Station, and works as before. Surveillance Station Pro is an optional install from the QPKG Center, and not part of the firmware.

As mentioned, the only exception are the TS-x69 models - here Surveillance Station Pro is coming with the firmware.

A lot of noise for nothing in my opinion.
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Re: Surveillance Station Pro - only provide 1 free IPcam lic

Post by TheAncient »

schumaku:
Sorry to disagree: I DID upgrade to firmware version 3.8. That was, when I was "automagically" "upgraded" to surveillance station pro with only a single camera license. I then had an email exchange with QNAP Technical support and was informed that if I wanted to use all 4 cameras, I would have to revert back to FW version 3.7.3.
So it's not quite so easy after all. I will have to install FW3.8 (which automatically DOWNgrades me to surveillance station PRO with a single license) I will then somehow have to uninstall surveillance station PRO and re-install the original 4 license version of surveillance station NON-PRO without going back to FW 3.7.3. I am hoping that QNAP technical support will tell me how to accomplish this and I am planning to post their reply here.
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