Making some sort of lisensing key GUID or Algorithm for an application

Relative0
07-03-2007, 03:24 PM
Hello,

What I would like to figure out how to do is to be able to generate a liscensing key dynamically and then it being able to be e-mailed to the person that downloads my program. The first part is what I really need help in. From my research I find that I can either Generate a unique identifier, (GUID),and then somehow compile this at download time into the VB.NET application I have then each of the keys can only open one instance of the program, (assuming I don't get a repeated GUID which is not very likely. I however have no idea how to do this. Does anyone have any leads, or alternate methods? What I was thinking though is to somehow create an algorithm in VB.NET that accepts certain keys. While I know that this is much more crackable than doing the GUID method it seems easier to manage but I am willing to go the extra mile if it will work out much better. What I am afraid of though is that someone will just put their program up for grabs with the Key whether it be a GUID or algorithm key. So in that case the GUID would be about as useless as the Algorithm as if people really want to steal the program I guess they will go out of their ways to do it. I notice that VB Express has a class for key entering GUI and am sure that I could figure out how to use it although I notice it has some ways to get by entering the key. Are there other wrappers that I could use that would have a GUI where I can enter a key, perhaps based on an algorithm I make up?

In the end what I hope to do is create a MySQL database or something and figure out how to send all the keys that have gone out to the database and then make it so the Visual Basic program has to be registered somehow and for the database to check and see if the Key that the person is trying to use is already in use by someone else. I know this is getting quite complex but I am willing to put in the effort if I have the leads. Any leads?

Thanks much,

Brian

PrOpHeT
07-04-2007, 09:53 PM
Welcome to the forum!

This topic has beaten to death in many different threads, try searching for licensing or serial numbers. There is truly nothing you can do to stop people if they want to pirate your software, just ask Microsoft.

However if you do want to do the unique licensing based on a guid, remember that the clr has a command line compiler, so any computer that can run a .net application can compile one as well. Therefore a web app can easily generate a new guid, modify a source file, compile on the fly and make an individual custom exe available for download. Personally I would definitely keep record of the used giud's and provide a second interface where someone could log in and re-download their version if need be by providing registration information and a license key. I have seen many softwares that do this, you download and a key is emailed to you for verification of your email. You can also specify trial expirations based on download datetime by compiling on the fly as well.

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