With the current global situation more people are having to work from home. If your company owns a Solidworks network license there are 2 methods to access that license from home.
1. Borrow the license. This involves connecting the machine that will be used at home to your companies network and use the “SolidNetWork license manager client” to borrow the license. The problem with this is you need to be able to physically have the machine in the office to borrow and check back in licenses.
2. Use a VPN as the connection from the home to the work network. VPN stands for Virtual Private Network and it is setup by your I.T department. A VPN allows you to connect to your companies network through the internet when you are at home. This allows you access to the SolidNetWork license manager on your server and hence access to your Solidworks licenses from home.
Some companies experience issues with VPN connection dropping out and for that reason they connect via VPN and then borrow the required Solidworks license. This is not recommended because it can result in the loss of license.
When borrowing a Solidworks license it is important how you are connected to the network. When we connect via VPN we connect via a virtual adapter. If you borrow the license and disconnect the VPN that virtual adapter disappears. This can cause the license to become orphaned.
For this reason, you should not borrow a license when connected to a VPN.