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Subscription state controls whether the appliance considers its licence valid, and therefore whether update feeds and signature modules can run. It defines no proxy policy rows of its own. SafeSquid re-checks subscription validity on every request, not once at startup — this is a per-request check, not a one-time state. This is the on-appliance side of licensing only — it reflects the key you already hold. To register an account or obtain a new activation key, see Support for where that key comes from on key.safesquid.com.

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Where subscription state appears

The authoritative view is the License Details panel on the Support page, reached from the top navigation bar next to Configure. Verified 2026-09-04 against build 2026.0627.1344.3. There is no Subscription section under Configure, and no licence or module-status tab under Reports.

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License Details fields

The panel is read-only apart from a Refresh control.

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How subscription affects the proxy

  1. On each request, SafeSquid sets or clears SUBSCRIPTION_EXPIRED on the connection from subscription validity checks.
  2. When expired, Application Signatures processing is skipped for that connection and security logging records filter subscription.
  3. Background subscription accounting talks to the vendor service, refreshes entitlement, and drives scheduled update hooks (signatures, categorisation feeds, trusted CA updates, and similar).
  4. At certain points while a request is being processed, an expired subscription can occasionally interrupt it with a renewal notice instead of the normal response — not on every request, and not a permanent block, since browsing continues normally in between. The same mechanism can also interrupt Image analyzer processing specifically.
Missing: whether an expired subscription also skips Header filter processing, alongside the confirmed Application Signatures skip above. Legacy documentation claims it does, but the live Header filtering console section has no mention of subscription or expiry anywhere, and the condition cannot be reproduced without an actually-expired licence. Escalate to engineering for a source-level answer before documenting this as behaviour.
An expired subscription is not the same as Access restrictions DENY — users may still connect while signature-dependent labelling and some update paths stop. Check the Support page’s License Details panel and Native SECURITY logs when behaviour changes after expiry.

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Renewing an activation key

Missing: the on-appliance step for installing a renewed activation key. No upload control for one was found in the current build’s console, so the procedure below is not documented here rather than guessed at. Obtain the renewed key from key.safesquid.com, then confirm the installation path with SafeSquid support for your build before a renewal window. Once a renewed key is in place, confirm it took effect:
  1. Open Support → License Details and select Refresh.
  2. Check that Status and Subscription Start reflect the new subscription.
  3. Confirm application signature tags apply again on new connections.
Expected result: SUBSCRIPTION_EXPIRED clears on new connections and signature-dependent labelling resumes.

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How to verify

  1. Support → License Details for subscription status, then Refresh to pull current state.
  2. Native SECURITY logs for subscription: expired on test requests.
  3. Application signature stats after a successful update cycle.
Legacy documentation references a “Modules Status” report showing signature and feed load status. No such tab exists in build 2026.0627.1344.3 — a DOM sweep of both the Reports and Support views found no occurrence (verified Reports tabs: Dashboard, Statistics, Native logs, Detailed logs, Config logs, Active Connections, Connection Pool, DNS Cache, LDAP Entries, Password Cache; verified Support cards: Support Tarball, Download Config, Upload Config, Upgradation, Performance Plot, URL Commands, Restart SafeSquid, Cloud Restore, Startup params, Live Support). Use Native logs and the update-hook logs referenced in Cloud / categorisation feeds instead.

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See also