MARC Report subscriptions

When you purchase MARC Report, you will receive a registration key. This key allows you to run the program–specifically, the version of the program that is current when you purchase MARC Report–indefinitely. This registration key will never become invalid or cancelled; however, you are responsible for keeping a backup copy of the installed software, and your registration key.

In addition, you will receive support, and will be entitled to software updates, for approximately one year¹⁾ following the date of purchase. We refer to this as the 'subscription'.

After this first year, a small annual fee is required to maintain your subscription: support and updates for another year.

Why subscribe?

In addition to receiving free support with the product, subscription also entitles you to access any updates to the program.

Updates are essential in the current cataloging climate, which is undergoing comprehensive change. Thus, MARC Report is updated twice a year, on average. These updates contain program enhancements, user-requested changes, bug fixes, support for cataloging standards changes, and new cataloging error checks.

Subscription validation

When the program starts, it first checks for registration, and then, if applicable, checks for a subscription that matches the program version. In almost every case, this process is instantaneous.

However, if you have recently purchased MARC Report, or resuscitated a lapsed subscription, etc., the program may not be able to validate your subscription on its own and will need to contact our server to do so. This contact involves sending an HTTP request to our server. This request does not contain any personal information; it contains your MARC Report user Id and a brief code from your windows installation.

If the program is able to access the server, but is unable to validate your subscription, it will display a message including our phone number. You should contact us to resolve the issue. If we have made an error, we will restore your subscription immediately by updating the data stored on our server.

Troubleshooting internet access

On the other hand, if the program is blocked from accessing this page, it will be unable to validate your subscription; in this case, a message that contains a link to this page will be displayed, and access to program functionality will be disabled.

There are two common causes of blocked web access.

First, your system may not allow any software to access the internet. In this case, you must contact your IT dept. to have them allow MARC Report to access the following domain: http://www.marcofquality.com (access to this domain is required for: subscription validation, program updates, current help, cataloging support, tutorials, newer program features, etc.)

Second, your system may need to use a proxy server to contact the web. In many cases, software will launch your default browser–which will already 'knows' about your proxy server–to access the web. However, for subscription validation, MARC Report must contact our server directly.

If a proxy server is required for your computer to access the internet, you will need to enter the server IP and port on the Program Automation page of the options. Here is a screenshot of that page; (please note that the information for your proxy server will probably be quite different from that shown in the screenshot):

After entering your proxy server information, press the 'Test' button–the program will attempt to contact our server to verify the settings. If successful, you should close the options form, close MARC Report, and restart it (the program not your computer); after re-starting, the program should then be able to access our server to validate your subscription via the proxy.

You may also use the 'Test' button to check whether you need a proxy server at all. Simply press 'Test' with both 'Address' and 'Port' boxes empty–the program will attempt to contact our server without going through a proxy server and report its results.

In any case, you may need to wait up to 30 seconds before a result is received. After 30 seconds, if the HTTP request has still not been satisfied, the test will timeout.

No internet access?

If you have no internet access, but do have email, it is still possible to validate your subscription using the following steps. First, start the program. When MARC Report asks for permission to access the internet, press OK. The request should timeout after about 15 seconds. Close the program.

Next, find the 'MarcReport' folder in your Documents area. On Windows7, this will be a directory like

C:\users\[username]\My Documents\MarcReport

In that folder should be a file named httpFailed.txt (this file is generated when the HTTP attempt fails, and contains a public key for validating your subscription)

Email this file to us as an attachment.

We will generate a subscription file (a similar text file, named 'subscription.txt') and email it back to you. Save the subscription file to your 'Documents\MarcReport' folder.

The next time you start the program your subscription will be validated, and there will be no further need to contact our server.

No 'httpFailed.txt' file

If for some reason the 'httpFailed.txt' file is not generated in your MarcReport folder, you can generate it manually by starting the program from a command-prompt.

Open a command prompt and copy and paste the following string into it²⁾:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\TMQ\MARC Report\marcreport.exe" --httpfail

This will generate the needed file and write it to your Desktop. Email that file to us, as described above.

Cancelled subscription

If you cancelled your subscription to MARC Report, and updated your software, you may be unable to run the program. In this case, please contact us by email; we will send you a link to the version of the software that was current when your subscription expired.