[Openroad-users] FW: Coding app to work for designated period

Fri Aug 3 10:56:14 EST 2007

________________________________

From: Pete Rabjohns [mailto:PRabjohns at atex.com] 
Sent: Friday, 3 August 2007 12:38 AM
To: International OpenROAD Users
Subject: RE: [Openroad-users] Coding app to work for designated period

A more complex, but foolproof method if your really wanting to lock down
yr app...

If you can insist that they need an internet connection you could obtain
the licensing from a web service - that would be impossible to get
around. The first install would get a license key and encrypt it.
Subsequent startups would call the web service to check for 'updates'
and also check to see whether they were allowed to continue running the
app.

Just a word of advice, I've seen licensing put into several commercial
apps and removed because it became problematic - so which ever system
you adopt, make sure that it does not prevent legitimate use of the
software.

Pet

________________________________

From: openroad-users-bounces at peerlessit.com
[mailto:openroad-users-bounces at peerlessit.com] On Behalf Of
gareth.2.edwards at bt.com
Sent: 02 August 2007 14:27
To: openroad-users at peerlessit.com
Subject: Re: [Openroad-users] Coding app to work for designated period

Yes, that's what i was thinking. And using the Select ('Today') to take
the server date. They would need to be pretty desperate to change that.
I suppose to could check client & server dates...

I do know a company that has a win95 machine, with the date set years
back just so they can run their Sage accounting package. Crazy!

Does anyone have any comments to get around the date problem? Or is it
more a hats-off to them if they are able to figure out the date, change
it and live with it.

Cheers, 
Gareth Edwards 

BT Global Services 
tel: +44 (0)131 345 4671 
email: gareth.2.edwards at bt.com <mailto:daryn.piper at bt.com>  

________________________________

	From: openroad-users-bounces at peerlessit.com
[mailto:openroad-users-bounces at peerlessit.com] On Behalf Of Darren Mason
	Sent: Thursday, August 02, 2007 1:57 PM
	To: 'International OpenROAD Users'
	Subject: Re: [Openroad-users] Coding app to work for designated
period

	Hi Gareth

	We do check against the system date so they sure can, however I
suppose our application is fortunate that it is heavily date based (it
is a time & attendance system) so if they start mucking around with
their system date they have every chance of screwing up their data (we
do use date('today') constructs...)

	It is a pretty desperate measure to change the system date - can
you imagine what it would do to Outlook alone (or whatever e-mail /
scheduling system is used)?    

	Anyway, a challenge for you!   If you devise a technique to get
over the system date issue I would be interested in what you do!

	Regards

	Darren

	From: openroad-users-bounces at peerlessit.com
[mailto:openroad-users-bounces at peerlessit.com] On Behalf Of
gareth.2.edwards at bt.com
	Sent: Thursday, 2 August 2007 10:25 PM
	To: openroad-users at peerlessit.com
	Subject: Re: [Openroad-users] Coding app to work for designated
period

	Hi Darren,

	Yes, that makes sense and has given me some ideas. 

	One problem; the expiration date. 

	What do you check that against? Because if it's the system
clock, then surely they could alter the system date on the client PC to
not expire??

	Cheers, 
	Gareth Edwards 

	BT Global Services 
	tel: +44 (0)131 345 4671 
	email: gareth.2.edwards at bt.com <mailto:daryn.piper at bt.com>  

________________________________

		From: openroad-users-bounces at peerlessit.com
[mailto:openroad-users-bounces at peerlessit.com] On Behalf Of Darren Mason
		Sent: Thursday, August 02, 2007 12:06 PM
		To: 'International OpenROAD Users'
		Subject: Re: [Openroad-users] Coding app to work for
designated period

		Hi Gareth

		We 'encrypt' a license string that has an expiration
date built into it.  We actually have a number of different structures
and use an identifier in the string to denote which technique has been
applied in the string, so we check a nominated character as the first
step and this tells us how to unpack the string to derive the date.

		The expiration date is embedded in the string and
extracted using the required technique.

		So a license string may be 2398762567...

		The 1st 3 characters may be nonsense and do nothing, the
4th identify the 'unpacking' technique, and the next 6 contain a number
that can be unpacked to represent a date.    The 4th character in the
license string above = '8' so we use the technique associated with 8.
This may be something like the number of days since 1990, so when added
to 1990 it gives the expiration date.   You can do some stuff such as
counting the number of days, dividing it by 3, multiplying it by 7 , and
then adding 1234 to it.    We use a separate program to generate the
license string for our clients (we enter the expiration date and the
'packing' technique and the software generates the string).  Our program
checks the license string and unpacks it.  If we are nearing the
expiration date it warns the users and once expired it denies them
access.

		We don't do the above but I am sure you get the idea.
We have a number of different techniques so different clients don't
necessarily have the same technique applied.

		Anyway, it may be overkill for you but it works really
well for us.

		Regards

		Darren Mason

		MyWorkplace Solutions Pty Limited

		Level 5, 11 Queens Road

		Melbourne Victoria 3004

		Ph.   1300 733 731

		Mob. 0419 337 170

		Fax.  03 9710 1112

		Making Service our Priority

		www.MyWorkplace.com.au

		If you receive this email by mistake, please notify us
and do not make any use of the email. We do not waive any privilege,
confidentiality or copyright associated with it.

		From: openroad-users-bounces at peerlessit.com
[mailto:openroad-users-bounces at peerlessit.com] On Behalf Of
gareth.2.edwards at bt.com
		Sent: Thursday, 2 August 2007 8:46 PM
		To: openroad-users at peerlessit.com
		Subject: [Openroad-users] Coding app to work for
designated period

		WinXP

		OR2006

		Ing2006

		Hi All,

		I've never really given this much thought in the past,.

		What ideas do you have for making an application only
work for a given time, like licensing? Because dates can be changed and
data accessed in the DB (ie. days_remaining = 20).

		Cheers, 
		Gareth Edwards 

		BT Global Services 
		tel: +44 (0)131 345 4671 
		email: gareth.2.edwards at bt.com
<mailto:daryn.piper at bt.com> 

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