Computer Name - Best way to obtain this VB.Net

[Paul Bromley]

Thanks for your tolerance on this list. I asked the question regarding
Commercial Copy Protection along with Unique PC Idnetifier and obtaining the
active IP address. This was all to identify and tie down software to each PC
on a network. I have just realised that the unique identity that I need to
go for on the network and should be easy to get in a foolproof manner is the
computer name. Hence which method will ALWAYS return the computer name on
any XP Win2K or Vista machine - 100% of the time??

Best wishes and thanks
Paul Bromley

[Paul Bromley]

I assume that this is likely to be the best way? :-

mComputerNetBio sName = System.Environm ent.MachineName

Best wishes

Paul Bromley
"Paul Bromley" <fl*******@dsl. pipex.comwrote in message
news:%2******** ********@TK2MSF TNGP02.phx.gbl. ..

Thanks for your tolerance on this list. I asked the question regarding
Commercial Copy Protection along with Unique PC Idnetifier and obtaining
the active IP address. This was all to identify and tie down software to
each PC on a network. I have just realised that the unique identity that I
need to go for on the network and should be easy to get in a foolproof
manner is the computer name. Hence which method will ALWAYS return the
computer name on any XP Win2K or Vista machine - 100% of the time??

Best wishes and thanks
Paul Bromley

[ShaneO]

Paul Bromley wrote:

I assume that this is likely to be the best way? :-

mComputerNetBio sName = System.Environm ent.MachineName

Yes, you're correct with this.

I've followed your other posts and would like to suggest that generating
a unique Serial Number for your software, on each machine that it is
executed, is not that difficult.

I use the following code (watch for wrapping!) -

Imports System.Manageme nt

''' <summary>
''' String of 1 to 2 chars. eg. "C" or "C:".
''' </summary>
''' <param name="sDriveLet ter"></param>
''' <returns></returns>
''' <remarks></remarks>
Public Function GetDriveSerialN umber(ByVal sDriveLetter As String) As String

If Len(sDriveLette r) = 1 Then
sDriveLetter &= ":"
Else
sDriveLetter = Strings.Left(En vironment.Syste mDirectory, 2)
End If

Dim HardDiskInfo As New ManagementObjec t("Win32_Logica lDisk.DeviceID= "
& ChrW(34) & sDriveLetter & ChrW(34))
Dim HardDiskPropert y As PropertyData =
HardDiskInfo.Pr operties("Volum eSerialNumber")
Return HardDiskPropert y.Value.ToStrin g

End Function
I first obtain the Drive Serial Number and then ensure it is
8-Characters in length -

Dim sA As String =
GetDriveSerialN umber(Strings.L eft(Environment .SystemDirector y, 2))

Dim N As UInt16 = Len(sA)
If N < 8 Then
sA = sA.PadRight(8 - N, "0")
ElseIf N 8 Then
sA = Strings.Left(sA , 8) 'Truncate to 8 Chars.
End If
After this I "AND" the value with another routine that automatically
generates an 8-Character HEX number based on the title of my software.
I then end up with a 16-Character HEX number, which is unique to each of
my applications and unique on every computer, I then do some more
XOR'ing and present this to the User as the Application Serial Number.

I obviously have another application that reverses all of this to
provide an Unlock Code that the User enters.

There are literally hundreds of Users running my applications using this
method, and although it really only stops the honest pirates, it serves
my purposes well.

If you'd like to see an example, please download one of my apps (written
for specific clients) from the following site -

http://www.arnfieldcomputerservices....pi/publish.htm

This will provide an example of what my Registration Screen looks like.

If you require any further assistance, please feel free to contact me
direct via the email address used in this post.

ShaneO

There are 10 kinds of people - Those who understand Binary and those who
don't.

[Paul Bromley]

Many thanks for this Shane - I will take a look tomorrow. Has this worked OK
on Win2K as well as XP?

Best wishes

Paul Bromley
"ShaneO" <sp****@optusne t.com.auwrote in message
news:45******** *************** @news.optusnet. com.au...

Paul Bromley wrote:

>I assume that this is likely to be the best way? :-

mComputerNetBi osName = System.Environm ent.MachineName

Yes, you're correct with this.

I've followed your other posts and would like to suggest that generating a
unique Serial Number for your software, on each machine that it is
executed, is not that difficult.

I use the following code (watch for wrapping!) -

Imports System.Manageme nt

''' <summary>
''' String of 1 to 2 chars. eg. "C" or "C:".
''' </summary>
''' <param name="sDriveLet ter"></param>
''' <returns></returns>
''' <remarks></remarks>
Public Function GetDriveSerialN umber(ByVal sDriveLetter As String) As
String

If Len(sDriveLette r) = 1 Then
sDriveLetter &= ":"
Else
sDriveLetter = Strings.Left(En vironment.Syste mDirectory, 2)
End If

Dim HardDiskInfo As New ManagementObjec t("Win32_Logica lDisk.DeviceID= " &
ChrW(34) & sDriveLetter & ChrW(34))
Dim HardDiskPropert y As PropertyData =
HardDiskInfo.Pr operties("Volum eSerialNumber")
Return HardDiskPropert y.Value.ToStrin g

End Function
I first obtain the Drive Serial Number and then ensure it is 8-Characters
in length -

Dim sA As String =
GetDriveSerialN umber(Strings.L eft(Environment .SystemDirector y, 2))

Dim N As UInt16 = Len(sA)
If N < 8 Then
sA = sA.PadRight(8 - N, "0")
ElseIf N 8 Then
sA = Strings.Left(sA , 8) 'Truncate to 8 Chars.
End If
After this I "AND" the value with another routine that automatically
generates an 8-Character HEX number based on the title of my software. I
then end up with a 16-Character HEX number, which is unique to each of my
applications and unique on every computer, I then do some more XOR'ing and
present this to the User as the Application Serial Number.

I obviously have another application that reverses all of this to provide
an Unlock Code that the User enters.

There are literally hundreds of Users running my applications using this
method, and although it really only stops the honest pirates, it serves my
purposes well.

If you'd like to see an example, please download one of my apps (written
for specific clients) from the following site -

http://www.arnfieldcomputerservices....pi/publish.htm

This will provide an example of what my Registration Screen looks like.

If you require any further assistance, please feel free to contact me
direct via the email address used in this post.

ShaneO

There are 10 kinds of people - Those who understand Binary and those who
don't.

[ShaneO]

Paul Bromley wrote:

Many thanks for this Shane - I will take a look tomorrow. Has this worked OK
on Win2K as well as XP?

Yes, this works on both Win2K and XP. It also works on Windows Server
2000 + 2003. I haven't tested it on Win98, but I believe if it can run
the .NET Framework then it will work.

ShaneO

There are 10 kinds of people - Those who understand Binary and those who
don't.

[Cor Ligthert [MVP]]

Shane,

Not all drives have serialnumbers.

Cor

"ShaneO" <sp****@optusne t.com.auschreef in bericht
news:45******** **************@ news.optusnet.c om.au...

Paul Bromley wrote:

>Many thanks for this Shane - I will take a look tomorrow. Has this worked
OK on Win2K as well as XP?

Yes, this works on both Win2K and XP. It also works on Windows Server
2000 + 2003. I haven't tested it on Win98, but I believe if it can run
the .NET Framework then it will work.

ShaneO

There are 10 kinds of people - Those who understand Binary and those who
don't.

[ShaneO]

Cor Ligthert [MVP] wrote:

Shane,

Not all drives have serialnumbers.

Cor

Cor, yes I've read that and certainly don't dispute it, however in my
experience (so far) I haven't found it to be the case.

Looking at my code sample, what do you believe would be returned in this
case? Under what circumstances are Serial Numbers not available?

ShaneO

There are 10 kinds of people - Those who understand Binary and those who
don't.

[Pritcham]

Hi Paul

You could also use the MAC address as this is specific to the NIC card
(as far as I understand) and has to be unique on the same network.

As a failsafe to the code that's posted here for getting the serial
number of the harddrive, you could use a combination of the MAC address
and the harddrive serial - that way, if the drive doesn't have a serial
then you can use the MAC address.

There's plenty of code available for getting the MAC address should you
need it.

Martin

Paul Bromley wrote:

Many thanks for this Shane - I will take a look tomorrow. Has this worked OK
on Win2K as well as XP?

Best wishes

Paul Bromley
"ShaneO" <sp****@optusne t.com.auwrote in message
news:45******** *************** @news.optusnet. com.au...

Paul Bromley wrote:

I assume that this is likely to be the best way? :-

mComputerNetBio sName = System.Environm ent.MachineName

Yes, you're correct with this.

I've followed your other posts and would like to suggest that generating a
unique Serial Number for your software, on each machine that it is
executed, is not that difficult.

I use the following code (watch for wrapping!) -

Imports System.Manageme nt

''' <summary>
''' String of 1 to 2 chars. eg. "C" or "C:".
''' </summary>
''' <param name="sDriveLet ter"></param>
''' <returns></returns>
''' <remarks></remarks>
Public Function GetDriveSerialN umber(ByVal sDriveLetter As String) As
String

If Len(sDriveLette r) = 1 Then
sDriveLetter &= ":"
Else
sDriveLetter = Strings.Left(En vironment.Syste mDirectory, 2)
End If

Dim HardDiskInfo As New ManagementObjec t("Win32_Logica lDisk.DeviceID= " &
ChrW(34) & sDriveLetter & ChrW(34))
Dim HardDiskPropert y As PropertyData =
HardDiskInfo.Pr operties("Volum eSerialNumber")
Return HardDiskPropert y.Value.ToStrin g

End Function
I first obtain the Drive Serial Number and then ensure it is 8-Characters
in length -

Dim sA As String =
GetDriveSerialN umber(Strings.L eft(Environment .SystemDirector y, 2))

Dim N As UInt16 = Len(sA)
If N < 8 Then
sA = sA.PadRight(8 - N, "0")
ElseIf N 8 Then
sA = Strings.Left(sA , 8) 'Truncate to 8 Chars.
End If
After this I "AND" the value with another routine that automatically
generates an 8-Character HEX number based on the title of my software. I
then end up with a 16-Character HEX number, which is unique to each of my
applications and unique on every computer, I then do some more XOR'ing and
present this to the User as the Application Serial Number.

I obviously have another application that reverses all of this to provide
an Unlock Code that the User enters.

There are literally hundreds of Users running my applications using this
method, and although it really only stops the honest pirates, it serves my
purposes well.

If you'd like to see an example, please download one of my apps (written
for specific clients) from the following site -

http://www.arnfieldcomputerservices....pi/publish.htm

This will provide an example of what my Registration Screen looks like.

If you require any further assistance, please feel free to contact me
direct via the email address used in this post.

ShaneO

There are 10 kinds of people - Those who understand Binary and those who
don't.

[Paul Bromley]

Thanks for all of the feedback on this and my recent posts. I have decided
to go with computer name and to use this along with other strings in an
encrypted format to produce my registartion keys. This will be more than
adequate for my purposes, as I do not want to make life difficult ofr my
users, but just want to preevent them from making multpile unpaid installs
on the same network.

Best wishes,
Paul Bromley

"Pritcham" <do************ ******@hotmail. comwrote in message
news:11******** *************@j 72g2000cwa.goog legroups.com...

Hi Paul

You could also use the MAC address as this is specific to the NIC card
(as far as I understand) and has to be unique on the same network.

As a failsafe to the code that's posted here for getting the serial
number of the harddrive, you could use a combination of the MAC address
and the harddrive serial - that way, if the drive doesn't have a serial
then you can use the MAC address.

There's plenty of code available for getting the MAC address should you
need it.

Martin

Paul Bromley wrote:

>Many thanks for this Shane - I will take a look tomorrow. Has this worked
OK
on Win2K as well as XP?

Best wishes

Paul Bromley
"ShaneO" <sp****@optusne t.com.auwrote in message
news:45******* *************** *@news.optusnet .com.au...

Paul Bromley wrote:
I assume that this is likely to be the best way? :-

mComputerNetBi osName = System.Environm ent.MachineName
Yes, you're correct with this.

I've followed your other posts and would like to suggest that
generating a
unique Serial Number for your software, on each machine that it is
executed, is not that difficult.

I use the following code (watch for wrapping!) -

Imports System.Manageme nt

''' <summary>
''' String of 1 to 2 chars. eg. "C" or "C:".
''' </summary>
''' <param name="sDriveLet ter"></param>
''' <returns></returns>
''' <remarks></remarks>
Public Function GetDriveSerialN umber(ByVal sDriveLetter As String) As
String

If Len(sDriveLette r) = 1 Then
sDriveLetter &= ":"
Else
sDriveLetter = Strings.Left(En vironment.Syste mDirectory, 2)
End If

Dim HardDiskInfo As New ManagementObjec t("Win32_Logica lDisk.DeviceID= "
&
ChrW(34) & sDriveLetter & ChrW(34))
Dim HardDiskPropert y As PropertyData =
HardDiskInfo.Pr operties("Volum eSerialNumber")
Return HardDiskPropert y.Value.ToStrin g

End Function
I first obtain the Drive Serial Number and then ensure it is
8-Characters
in length -

Dim sA As String =
GetDriveSerialN umber(Strings.L eft(Environment .SystemDirector y, 2))

Dim N As UInt16 = Len(sA)
If N < 8 Then
sA = sA.PadRight(8 - N, "0")
ElseIf N 8 Then
sA = Strings.Left(sA , 8) 'Truncate to 8 Chars.
End If
After this I "AND" the value with another routine that automatically
generates an 8-Character HEX number based on the title of my software.
I
then end up with a 16-Character HEX number, which is unique to each of
my
applications and unique on every computer, I then do some more XOR'ing
and
present this to the User as the Application Serial Number.

I obviously have another application that reverses all of this to
provide
an Unlock Code that the User enters.

There are literally hundreds of Users running my applications using
this
method, and although it really only stops the honest pirates, it serves
my
purposes well.

If you'd like to see an example, please download one of my apps
(written
for specific clients) from the following site -

http://www.arnfieldcomputerservices....pi/publish.htm

This will provide an example of what my Registration Screen looks like.

If you require any further assistance, please feel free to contact me
direct via the email address used in this post.

ShaneO

There are 10 kinds of people - Those who understand Binary and those
who
don't.