What I do is try to use as much of the 30 day free trial as possible
+1. I just rebuilt my main workstation about 17 days ago and will wait until I have a day to go before actually restoring a license. I also use this period to ensure all my updates, libraries, backups and all the rest of the layout is sound before committing to another restore.
I still think that JRiver needs to look at this whole process - especially for paying customers (and shaky or NO internet access). Once I successfully "restore" my license from the actual JRiver servers for the first time - I should be able to save that license data to a local encrypted file (managed of course by MC) that allows me to easily restore my license from my local machine at anytime instead of having to mess around via the Internet everytime. If a guy suddenly loses Internet access - just when the time to restore comes along or when the trial times out - then he is truly screwed with no license at all.
VP