Troubleshooting Hardware ID Changes in a Multi-NIC Environment

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Affected Roles: Administrator, Power Users

Related Digital Watchdog VMS Apps: DW Spectrum

Last Edit: April 4, 2025

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HWID in Multi-NIC Environments

In Multi-NIC hardware environments, it is important to remember that the calculation of the hardware ID (HWID) is based on the configuration of the network interface card (NIC) when DW Spectrum is initially installed. 

If a NIC hardware configuration is modified AFTER DW Spectrum licenses have been activated – a NIC port being disabled by the user, etc. – the HWID will change, and licenses will become invalid as a result.

This article will outline how to resolve invalidated recording licenses after manually disabling a DW Spectrum Server’s network interface card (NIC) on Windows and Linux/Ubuntu systems.

 

**NOTE: Replacing internal hardware components (motherboard, CPU, RAM, NIC, etc.) will also alter the Server’s HWID. If you are making changes to your server hardware, be sure to deactivate the recording licenses prior to performing alterations.

 

Related Articles

• DW Spectrum - Why Did My Hardware ID (HWID) Change?
• DW Spectrum – HWID Not Found and WMI Issue
• DW Spectrum - Best Practices for Preserving Data for Server Migration

 

Windows OS Multi-NIC Troubleshooting

If you have disabled the DW Spectrum Server’s NIC and licenses no longer appear valid, try the following:

1. Re-enable the NIC.

 

2. Open Command Prompt and enter the ipconfig/all command.
3. Find the re-enabled NIC and copy the MAC Address (e.g., Physical Address) to a text file or clipboard.

Change the hyphens in the mac address to colons. 

 

4. Open the Registry Editor (Regedit) application and navigate to:

 

5. Find and double-click on “storedMac” to open the Edit String dialog.
6. In the Value data window, copy-and-paste the MAC Address from above (remember to change the hyphens to colons) and press OK.

 

7. Restart the DW Spectrum Mediaserver application using the DW Spectrum Tray Tool (located in the lower right-hand corner of the Windows Taskbar) or using the DW Spectrum Web Interface.

 

8. Repeat these steps for all affected NICs until licenses no longer show as invalid.

 

Ubuntu Linux OS Multi-NIC Troubleshooting

If you have disabled the DW Spectrum Server’s NIC and licenses no longer appear valid, try the following:

1. Re-enable the NIC.
2. Open the Terminal application and use the ifconfig command.
3. Find the re-enabled NIC and copy the MAC Address (appears next to “HWaddr”) to a text file or clipboard. 
4. While still in the Terminal application, change to the DW Spectrum Server’s Media Server directory with the command:

 

5. Then open the GNU Nano Text Editor with the command:

 

6. Find the “storedMac” string and replace the existing value (appears after the = sign) with the copied MAC Address value from Step 3 above.
7. Press the CTRL + X keys to exit the GNU Nano Text Editor.

Press the Y-Key then press the ENTER key to apply the changes.

8. While still in the Terminal application use the following command to restart the mediaserver.

 

9. Repeat these steps for all affected NICs until licenses no longer show as invalid.

 

 

 

For More Information or Technical Support

DW Technical Support:  866.446.3595 (option 4)

https://www.digital-watchdog.com/contact-tech-support/

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