Can I use RoboSource without buying RoboHelp Server?

Question

I work for a University that has just purchased a new
database system (Advance for the Web) from SunGard Higher Ed. The
system came with on-line documentation written in RoboHelp that we
can edit to suit the needs of our institution. We could have edited
the individual HTML topics (about 1,300 of them total) without
RoboHelp, but instead we opted to purchase RoboHelp 7 in order to
have the entire pre-existing help project. I am the sole editor of
this project.
I would like to be able to use the RoboSource application in
order to track changes that I make to the pre-existing help topics,
but when I tried to add version control to my project, it prompted
me to create a connection to a database. Our database lives on a
remote server that is password protected. I tried to make the
connection, but I received the following error message: "No
connection could be made because the target machine actively
refused it." The RoboSource on-line documentation describes how to
create a database, but I don't need a new database because ours
already exists... I just can't connect to it via the RoboSource
application. That's my first problem.
The second problem: Even if there is a way to circumvent the
"remote server database issue" and create a "Help" database on my
local machine, I can't figure out how I would DO that. The
RoboSource on-line documentation says the following: "Unlike in
previous versions, creating a database for RoboSource Control 3.1
is not done within the RoboSource Control Explorer, but within a
stand-alone application - the RoboSource Server Configuration
Utility.” Does this mean that I need the RoboHelp Server, or
is there a RoboSource Server, too? Do I HAVE to have one (or both)
of these products in order to use version control?
Please help me. I'm not a technical person, but the people
who I work with who ARE technical people don't understand what I
need to do, either.

Answer 1

@ Gravenstein
Thanks for your response.
>>...We are using three clients and one server. We have
installed the server component together with the client component
on a local PC. That's why I don't know whether the server component
needs a licence key or not. But it should not have to.
I haven't described it correct. We are using 3 clients to
work with. One of these clients has also the server installed. So
the database is not on a server machine but on a local PC. Now we
want to get the database away from the local PC to a server
machine. That's why I wonder if the installation of RSC Server on a
server asks for a licence key?!?
>>...This server doesn't need the robohelp environment
to edit topics, it only needs the server component. This should be
possible to install without asking for a licence key.
>> That is correct. At least that's the way it works
with RH6.
What do you mean with "that's the way it works with RH6"? How
about RH7? Does it work similar? I hope so, because we want to
upgrade and to move the database from the local PC to our server
machine after the upgrade.
By the way, does it function to copy the old database from
the local (server) PC to the server machine and after changing the
clients settings to work with the new server they could use the old
database in the new folder of the server machine again? Or do we
have to write the projects from every client to the new server
machine manually to work with the version control after changing
the server? I'm asking this because I don't know what is stored in
the database. If the folder name of the database is stored in the
database, it doesn't work any longer if it is moved to another
folder!?