Checking the number of machines

Question

I wish to seek suggestions on th following:

While creating a product key if one wish to use the no. of machines the key is made for , just like in the case of Microsoft Volume Licensing , how can one do that so that easily verfiable inside the dll which is made to verfiy the key entered in the installer and say if a key is made for say 100 machines how does one validate it offline that the product key does not work on 101th computer.

Thanks,

Answer 1

It's called 'floating licenses'. You can have a 'license server' that reserves N seats for specific local area network. When an instance of application is launched it connects to the 'license server' and queries a permission to run. If there are already N connections, N+1 instance start up will be denied.

Check the http://activation-cloud.com it might be useful for you.

Answer 2

This is not possible without a central server which validates installations and (more importantly) activations and uses.

Answer 3

one way is central server and floating license (as ActivationCloud said). other way is to have serial numbers of physical devices. e.g. some companies sell soft that is intended to run only on pendrive and you have to provide the serial number before downloading the program. the number is automatically inserted into the program and this prepared program is downloaded by the client. this particular program will not run (without hacking it) on any other device