Registration keycode verification question...

Posted by: Pete Ness

Registration keycode verification question... - 10/15/00 01:28 PM

Hi, all.<br><br>I've had some problems recently with my some of the Ping Plotter registration keys being made known on some of the "warez"/"serialz" sites. Interestingly, at the same time this happened, sales of Ping Plotter had a marked drop. It's hard to know for absolutely sure that this is the reason for the sales drop, but it's a little bit too close for it to be coincidence.<br><br>My question, then, is whether anyone has any problems with Ping Plotter contacting my registration server when you enter the registration key. If the server was unable to be contacted, Ping Plotter would continue to work just as though it had contacted the server, but would try again next time it was run. Once the registration server was contacted and the key "validated", it wouldn't need to contact the server again, and would work just as it does now.<br><br>When Ping Plotter contacted the server, it would send a little bit of machine specific information - (ie: hard drive serial number, etc. - but no *user* information). If this machine specific information changed, Ping Plotter would have to go back up to the server again to get re-validated (automatically, of course).<br><br>This scheme allows everyone to continue using their existing keys - and upgrades would all just work automatically (although the first time a version over 2.20 was run, the registration server would need to be contacted). In addition, while some machine upgrades will make contact with the registration server necessary, this will happen automatically with no hassles. If there is any problems reaching the registration server (ie: web site down, etc.), then the program will continue to work as a registered version.<br><br>I'm just about done with these mechanisms, so I'm interested to hear any feedback (positive or negative) anyone has about this. It's my intentions to not inconvenience *actual* registered users at all, but to encourage those who are using it with "borrowed" or invalid registration keys to register it. I've always tried to keep the price of Ping Plotter cheap enough to not have to deal with this issue, but it appears that alternate measures need to be taken.<br><br>Thanks for the feedback!<br><br>P.S. I'm expecting a new beta version with this validation feature (and a few bug fixes and new features) to be ready in a week to 10 days.<br><br>
Posted by: alavan

Re: Registration keycode verification question... - 11/10/00 06:28 PM

Serv-U has done this for quite a long time. If you want to protect yourself, it's the only way to go.<br><br>