Infralution Support

[markc]

Infralution creates a text file with a copy of the license key, and places it on the hard drive - it's not too hard to find. Can't someone just distribute this file to other users, and defeat the licensing? What am i missing?

[Infralution]

Since you must have the license key in the first place to install it - you don't even need to go looking for it on the hard drive before distributing to others. You can only prevent this type of sharing of keys by locking license keys to the PC. However this tecnhique comes with its own share of problems (see Can I generate licenses which are locked to a specific PC?
)

If you are concerned about leaving the license key in its original form on the hard drive then you can override the ReadFromFile and WriteKeyToFile methods to encrypt the key or save it in an alternative location.
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Infralution Support

[markc]

WHat's the next step then in preventing this? Is it having the application query a license manager to see if the key has already been used? Do you offer this?

[Infralution]

[rocco76]

I'm trying to implement a custom server based activation system to use with ILS right now, but after reading this post I'm thinking again and I'd like to know more about your implementation and the estimated release date to see if I can drop my project and upgrade to version 4. Thank you.

[Infralution]

The release date is not fixed in concrete yet but is likely to be about a month away now ie early July hopefully. The new version will include an Authentication Web Service that authenticates license keys and uses public key encryption to sign a license including both the key and the computer name. This will lock the license key to the computer name (by default) - but there is also the ability to modify this to lock the license to some other characteristic(s) of the computer it is running on.

You will be able to configure the Authentication server to set the maximum number of unique computers that a key can be authenticated on. You generally want to cut your legitimate customers some slack so that if they change their computer name (or whatever you are locking the key to) once or twice they can still install their key. This will prevent wholesale copying of keys within a company. License Tracker will be able to import data from the Authentication Server allowing you to identify customers who may be abusing their license conditions. You will also be able to change the Authentication limits for a given key on the server from License Tracker to either prevent the key being used or extend a given user some more grace.
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Infralution Support

[Orgbrat]

I am interested in the above functionality. Would you please notify me when you have the above authentication services ready for release. Thanks...

Orgbrat
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Steve Graddy MCP, MCPS, MCNPS, MCAD
Orgbrat Consulting ( Microsoft Certified Partner )
orgbrat@orgbrat.com

[Infralution]

We will send out an email to all ILS customers about this when it is released. To esure that you receive emails about new releases see the following post: http://www.infralution.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=946
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Infralution Support

[Infralution]

We are happy to announce the release of Version 4 of ILS. Version 4 includes the new authenticated licensing model. See the Release Notes for more details.

Note that this is a paid upgrade. For a limited time the upgrade price for existing Version 3 customers is just the difference between the full cost for Version 3 ($US90) and the new cost for Version 4 ($US140). Full pricing information is available from www.infralution.com/licensingpurchase.html.
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Infralution Support

[rickrat]