Looking for ways to generate unique ids for a user's PC

[Lauren Wilson]

Does anyone know how the following info is extracted from the user's
computer by a Front Page form?

HTTP User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US;
rv:1.7.5) Gecko/20041107 Firefox/1.0

I only ask because I believe I could use the same info as part of a
scheme to generate a unique (or at least less common) serialized id
code for the user's computer as part of a software locking and
activation system. If I had a DLL that could allow VBA calls to a
function that would extract the same info from the user's computer, I
could use the info to craft a unique id (or at least a less common id)
for part of the encrypted serial code.

Front Page has a form option that will send the above info back to the
form owner when someone clicks submit. I'd simply like to know if
anyone has or knows of a DLL that will extract the same info or, even
better, hardware ids (hard disks, CD/DVD, Mac Address, etc) from the
user's PC.

Of course there are many PCs out there that can generate the same info
as this because they have the same stuff installed. But this gets the
idea across (I hope).

Thanks large for any advice you folks can offer.

--LW

[Alan Webb]

Lauren,
It's called Systems Management Server, comes from Microsoft, and costs a
bunch. It isn't just a DLL, it's a whole big add-on to Windows NT 4.0
Server and later. When we needed to inventory 300 or so computers for a Y2K
project the cheapest, easiest way we came up with is use some API calls to
the operating system to gather as much as we could from Windows, enhanced
that with a batch file that ported screen dumps of info from built-in DOS
commands like NET to a text file, and just for the sake of due diligence,
used a utility from Compaq that would tell us about the machine as well.
All this got appended to a text file that I then had Word troll through to
pick out the data we wanted and transfer it to a database.
As for generating encrypted serial codes, I'd start with the MAC address of
the NIC. PII and later processors have a processor serial number available
to Windows (though it can be disabled in the CMOS settings of a machine).
Web browsers get this information from Windows, which has a bunch of API's
that will tell you about itself and the machine it is running on. I'd start
there.

"Lauren Wilson" <???@???.???> wrote in message
news:c8******** *************** *********@4ax.c om...

Does anyone know how the following info is extracted from the user's
computer by a Front Page form?

HTTP User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US;
rv:1.7.5) Gecko/20041107 Firefox/1.0

I only ask because I believe I could use the same info as part of a
scheme to generate a unique (or at least less common) serialized id
code for the user's computer as part of a software locking and
activation system. If I had a DLL that could allow VBA calls to a
function that would extract the same info from the user's computer, I
could use the info to craft a unique id (or at least a less common id)
for part of the encrypted serial code.

Front Page has a form option that will send the above info back to the
form owner when someone clicks submit. I'd simply like to know if
anyone has or knows of a DLL that will extract the same info or, even
better, hardware ids (hard disks, CD/DVD, Mac Address, etc) from the
user's PC.

Of course there are many PCs out there that can generate the same info
as this because they have the same stuff installed. But this gets the
idea across (I hope).

Thanks large for any advice you folks can offer.

--LW

[Darryl Kerkeslager]

Try this code from Dev Ashish:

http://www.mvps.org/access/api/api0009.htm
Darryl Kerkeslager
"Lauren Wilson" <???@???.???> wrote:

I only ask because I believe I could use the same info as part of a
scheme to generate a unique (or at least less common) serialized id
code for the user's computer as part of a software locking and
activation system.

[Trevor Best]

Lauren Wilson wrote:

Does anyone know how the following info is extracted from the user's
computer by a Front Page form?

HTTP User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US;
rv:1.7.5) Gecko/20041107 Firefox/1.0

In ASP...
Request.ServerV ariables("HTTP_ USER_AGENT")

--
This sig left intentionally blank

[Lauren Wilson]

On Tue, 16 Nov 2004 08:27:52 -0500, "Darryl Kerkeslager"
<Ke*********@co mcast.net> wrote:

Try this code from Dev Ashish:

http://www.mvps.org/access/api/api0009.htm
Darryl Kerkeslager
"Lauren Wilson" <???@???.???> wrote:

I only ask because I believe I could use the same info as part of a
scheme to generate a unique (or at least less common) serialized id
code for the user's computer as part of a software locking and
activation system.

Thanks Darryl. This sounds like a good starting point. However, I
wonder how many users actually change the default computer name? And
what the hell IS the default computer name that Windows sets up
anyway? Do you know?

[Lauren Wilson]

On Tue, 16 Nov 2004 08:27:52 -0500, "Darryl Kerkeslager"
<Ke*********@co mcast.net> wrote:

Try this code from Dev Ashish:

http://www.mvps.org/access/api/api0009.htm
Darryl Kerkeslager
"Lauren Wilson" <???@???.???> wrote:

I only ask because I believe I could use the same info as part of a
scheme to generate a unique (or at least less common) serialized id
code for the user's computer as part of a software locking and
activation system.

Also, do you have any idea how I can retrieve the drive id that is
allegedly encoded in the Drive ROM? That id in combination with the
Machine name could produce an (almost) bulletproof unique ID.

[Darryl Kerkeslager]

I use this for my app because the computer name is set by the network admins
to bew unique, and will not be reset. If you are operating in a different
environment - like over the Internet, then this may not be what you need.

When you first set up a computer on XP, you are prompted to enter a new
computer name. Here is the informnation on re-setting the computer name to
identify the comnputer to the network for XP:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/295017

However, for login, I use the Windows login. Again, I guess it depends on
your environment.

Unfortunately, I'm at the end of my tether with this.
Darryl Kerkeslager
"Lauren Wilson" <???@???.???> wrote in message
news:8u******** *************** *********@4ax.c om...

On Tue, 16 Nov 2004 08:27:52 -0500, "Darryl Kerkeslager"
<Ke*********@co mcast.net> wrote:

Try this code from Dev Ashish:

http://www.mvps.org/access/api/api0009.htm
Darryl Kerkeslager
"Lauren Wilson" <???@???.???> wrote:

I only ask because I believe I could use the same info as part of a
scheme to generate a unique (or at least less common) serialized id
code for the user's computer as part of a software locking and
activation system.

Thanks Darryl. This sounds like a good starting point. However, I
wonder how many users actually change the default computer name? And
what the hell IS the default computer name that Windows sets up
anyway? Do you know?

Also, do you have any idea how I can retrieve the drive id that is
allegedly encoded in the Drive ROM? That id in combination with the
Machine name could produce an (almost) bulletproof unique ID.

[Bolt Upright]

Hi All,

Would a GUID work???

Check the following link...

http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;176790

Cheers and HTH
"Lauren Wilson" <???@???.???> wrote in message
news:c8******** *************** *********@4ax.c om...

Does anyone know how the following info is extracted from the user's
computer by a Front Page form?

HTTP User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US;
rv:1.7.5) Gecko/20041107 Firefox/1.0

I only ask because I believe I could use the same info as part of a
scheme to generate a unique (or at least less common) serialized id
code for the user's computer as part of a software locking and
activation system. If I had a DLL that could allow VBA calls to a
function that would extract the same info from the user's computer, I
could use the info to craft a unique id (or at least a less common id)
for part of the encrypted serial code.

Front Page has a form option that will send the above info back to the
form owner when someone clicks submit. I'd simply like to know if
anyone has or knows of a DLL that will extract the same info or, even
better, hardware ids (hard disks, CD/DVD, Mac Address, etc) from the
user's PC.

Of course there are many PCs out there that can generate the same info
as this because they have the same stuff installed. But this gets the
idea across (I hope).

Thanks large for any advice you folks can offer.

--LW

[Lauren Wilson]

Wow Bolt! This just might be the ticket. Dang! I knew about those
GUIDs but I simply overlooked that obvious possibility. Thanks.
On Tue, 16 Nov 2004 18:50:06 -0500, "Bolt Upright"
<Bo*********@BH .com> wrote:

Hi All,

Would a GUID work???

Check the following link...

http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;176790

Cheers and HTH
"Lauren Wilson" <???@???.???> wrote in message
news:c8******* *************** **********@4ax. com...

Does anyone know how the following info is extracted from the user's
computer by a Front Page form?

HTTP User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US;
rv:1.7.5) Gecko/20041107 Firefox/1.0

I only ask because I believe I could use the same info as part of a
scheme to generate a unique (or at least less common) serialized id
code for the user's computer as part of a software locking and
activation system. If I had a DLL that could allow VBA calls to a
function that would extract the same info from the user's computer, I
could use the info to craft a unique id (or at least a less common id)
for part of the encrypted serial code.

Front Page has a form option that will send the above info back to the
form owner when someone clicks submit. I'd simply like to know if
anyone has or knows of a DLL that will extract the same info or, even
better, hardware ids (hard disks, CD/DVD, Mac Address, etc) from the
user's PC.

Of course there are many PCs out there that can generate the same info
as this because they have the same stuff installed. But this gets the
idea across (I hope).

Thanks large for any advice you folks can offer.

--LW

[Lauren Wilson]

OOPS! I spoke too soon! The text of this article, under "MORE
INFORMATION" is quoted as follows:

"The code below can be used to create a GUID in Visual Basic. The code
calls the CoCreateGuid API found in OLE32.DLL on Windows 95, Windows
98, Windows Me, Windows NT and Windows 2000. ..."

Geesh! Windows XP is conspicuously missing! Guess I'll need to dig a
bit deeper. Don't suppose you have something on the XP version do
you? Even if you don't, I thank you for your kind efforts.
On Tue, 16 Nov 2004 18:50:06 -0500, "Bolt Upright"
<Bo*********@BH .com> wrote:

Hi All,

Would a GUID work???

Check the following link...

http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;176790

Cheers and HTH
"Lauren Wilson" <???@???.???> wrote in message
news:c8******* *************** **********@4ax. com...

Does anyone know how the following info is extracted from the user's
computer by a Front Page form?

HTTP User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US;
rv:1.7.5) Gecko/20041107 Firefox/1.0

I only ask because I believe I could use the same info as part of a
scheme to generate a unique (or at least less common) serialized id
code for the user's computer as part of a software locking and
activation system. If I had a DLL that could allow VBA calls to a
function that would extract the same info from the user's computer, I
could use the info to craft a unique id (or at least a less common id)
for part of the encrypted serial code.

Front Page has a form option that will send the above info back to the
form owner when someone clicks submit. I'd simply like to know if
anyone has or knows of a DLL that will extract the same info or, even
better, hardware ids (hard disks, CD/DVD, Mac Address, etc) from the
user's PC.

Of course there are many PCs out there that can generate the same info
as this because they have the same stuff installed. But this gets the
idea across (I hope).

Thanks large for any advice you folks can offer.

--LW