Unique computer id

[Mark Talluto]

On Jul 21, 2005, at 10:29 AM, Ken Ray wrote:

> One thing to keep in mind with getting MAC Addresses - a person may  
> have
> more than one, especially if they have both a standard Ethernet NIC  
> as well
> as a card for wireless network connections (like I do). So when I do
> IPCONFIG /all, I get *two* line items that say "Physical Address".
>
> And since it is more likely that cards will be removed/replaced  
> than hard
> drives, I'd stick with getting the hard disk serial number (with  
> all the
> appropriate caveats, of course).

I am assuming this is being used for some form of copy protection.   
Realizing that no copy protection is completely secure, I find the  
MAC address the easiest to deal with.  My customers probably do not  
have the know how to crack the system and do not really have the time  
nor the inclination to try.  I also find that nics rarely fail and  
rarely ever get changed out as the technology does not progress as  
quickly as hard drive technology.  Most of my users do not even  
realize that a MAC address even exists.  You can mask the user from  
the address completely as well by converting it to some other form if  
you want to add another turn in the maze.

Shari's situation is unique.  I don't remember if she got a dump with  
ipconfig to see if the user even had a nic.  That number should be  
there regardless of the user being connected to the net or not.  What  
version of Windows is the user using Shari?


Mark Talluto
-- 
CANELA Software
http://www.canelasoftware.com