Retrieve Info From Home Server

[gcohen]

Hi,

I want to license a program I'm making and I thought the best way to protect it would be to have the program (on my client's server) check with information on my server (Client ID perhaps) to determine the limitations of the program. For example, let's say that I will license it by the number of users...the program will check my server every time a new user tries to register to determine how many users it can have. Then, if the client wants to purchase more users, I can change it on my end without the client having to change any code or download and install any upgrade.

My question is, is it possible to have my server safely checked. If it is, how do I go about doing it?

Thanks for your help!
Greg

[herve]

Hi,

the problem here is that , if you're coding your
prg (on the client server) in PHP, he (the client)
can change whatever control you may want to
established, since it's just a PHP source to
read (read : hire a young PHP coder to modify
the PHP code for me, the client)

So, you need some PHP compiler/encoder I think, like the one sold by Zend.

Here for more info

http://www.zend.com/store/products/zend-encoder.php

It's not really cheap 🙁 but for a commercial
activity ...

After, that, your prg on the server client
just request a dynamic URL on your server
and expect an answer (basically : YES or NO)

For instance :

[url]http://your_server.com/get_rights.php?serial=123-789-854&nb_user=19[/url]

where 123-789-854 is the serial number of your
client and "nb_user" the number of user requested
by the client

then your get_rights.php prog look a table
where the index is the serial number

serial_nb max_user

123-789-854 25
123-457-444 5
123-526-859 10

so you can check if the number of users asked is below the right of your customer.

You also can add security by crypting the
URL and also the answer (a big hello to my
paranoïd friends out there 🙂 !)

regards,
Hervé.