What happens when my licensing expires?

Hey, Joel.

If that's an appliance, it will revert to the basic licence, which will give you only basic firewall functions. Web protection, Active Directory integration, IPS, VPN, Mail Protection and every other module will stop.

If it's a software UTM, then everything, including firewall, will stop. You won't be able to login to WebAdmin without a valid licence, as a matter of fact, as it will require a new license as soon as you login.

Bottom line, don't wait and see. Contact your Sophos reseller and have they hook you up with a 30 day trial license by September 10th and install it on your UTM before September 12th. That should give you enough time to figure things out. 

Regards - Giovani

Hey, Joel.

If that's an appliance, it will revert to the basic licence, which will give you only basic firewall functions. Web protection, Active Directory integration, IPS, VPN, Mail Protection and every other module will stop.

If it's a software UTM, then everything, including firewall, will stop. You won't be able to login to WebAdmin without a valid licence, as a matter of fact, as it will require a new license as soon as you login.

Bottom line, don't wait and see. Contact your Sophos reseller and have they hook you up with a 30 day trial license by September 10th and install it on your UTM before September 12th. That should give you enough time to figure things out. 

Regards - Giovani

Excellent. Thanks for the info!

Joel, I must respectfully disagree with our friend Giovani.  You should have your company purchase two one-month extensions.  From your description, you have TotalProtect 320, so that would cost under US$250 in North America.  You should get your trusted reseller involved.

Cheers - Bob

Thanks Bob,

I'm working with CDW on this. So far they have quoted me a full year renewal for ~$4700 or so. Seeing if they can get me a 1 month cost quote.

Thanks for your continuous/constant presence on the forums. I feel like Sophos should send you duffel bags full of money for the support you provide on here.

giomoda said:

If it's a software UTM, then everything, including firewall, will stop. You won't be able to login to WebAdmin without a valid licence, as a matter of fact, as it will require a new license as soon as you login.

That's wrong, of course you can login to WebAdmin, even if the license is expired. Where else can you apply a new license if Webadmin is not usable?

Two years ago I missed to renew the license due to vacations and it was possible to open Webadmin to apply the renewed license.

Only basic firewall operation continues, all the extras as you have mentioned will stop immediately after expiration.

Hey, gsxfan.

Thank you! I stand corrected. I was pulling things from memory, as I have only a couple of software UTM setups running, so I got this wrong, indeed. Basic firewall rules indeed keep working on a software UTM after the license expires. And you are also right that WebAdmin is still accessible, and that's what i meant, but with wrong words. What I really meant to say is that you cannot even manage your Software UTM after expiration until you load a valid license, as it will not allow you anywhere past the license request screen. For an appliance it will at least let you manage your basic firewall without adding a valid license.

At least that's what happened to me, but that was a few years ago, so I don't know if it has changed or not.

Regards - Giovani