Yes, SmartSVN is licensed on a per-user basis. This means one user can use SmartSVN on multiple machines as long as it is ensured that no one else uses SmartSVN with his/her license.
Suppose you have licensed SmartSVN today. Then you can upgrade for free to all bug-fix releases of the current SmartSVN version (e.g. all 6.5.x versions if the current version today is 6.5), even after one year. You are also entitled to upgrade to new major versions which have been released during the period of one year and again to all bug-fix releases of these major releases even after one year. You can't upgrade for free to major releases which have been released after one year (and hence also not to their bug-fix releases).
SmartSVN upgrades working copies automatically, as all other SVN clients do. Upgrading is necessary to support all features of Subversion. However, you can downgrade working copies to the foregoing SVN version with Help|Downgrade Working Copy.
Ensure, that a personal firewall is not blocking the connection.
Some nVidia motherboards have a built-in hardware firewall that is active by default. One needs to install the latest drivers and the management tools from nVidia to be able to deactivate the hardware firewall.
Files can only be ignored if they are unversioned (see table column "Local State" in SmartSVN's main file table).
SmartSVN supports the http://, https://, svn:// and svn+ssh:// protocols.
The file:// protocol is not supported because it would be technically very difficult to implement, and the svn:// protocol is an alternative that can be set up very easily.
Due to import control restrictions of some countries you have to install Java Cryptography Extension (JCE) Unlimited Strength Jurisdiction Policy Files for the JRE used by SmartSVN.
The time used for refreshing depends on the visible file table columns. Try to disable the "expensive" columns listed for View|Table Columns.
This problem is related to GNU Java (GCJ) and can be solved by installing the latest Java Runtime Environment from Sun.
You might have a keyboard which uses a 32-bit driver, whereas SmartSVN runs with 64 bit. Please uninstall the 32-bit keyboard driver and try a 64-bit driver instead, e.g. the default one from Apple.
This is a known problem of the Java Runtime Environment (see also bug 6588271) on Windows XP and newer. It does no harm to your working copy. Simply exit SmartSVN (Project|Exit or right click the tray icon and choose Exit) and restart it. Alternatively, you can configure SmartSVN to use the platform-independent look and feel.
SmartSVN uses a 32-bit launcher and file-watcher DLL. Starting a 64-bit Java Runtime Environment from a 32-bit launcher or loading the 32-bit DLL from a 64-bit JRE will not work.
Just download the application bundle with (32-bit) JRE and it should work without problems.
Check the Problems section in the Technical Articles area.