[TriLUG] machine comparing... possibly OT

[David McDowell]

Your virtual machine idea is a keen one... though I don't "yet" have
the resources for doing such... I will before the year is out.  My
only problem is location... it has a 9pin serial connection to the
physical system it monitors... sounds like COM1 will work in the
virtual machine scenario, but I won't have any hardware close enough
to it that could do that and other things as well (so as not to waste
the hardware).  *sigh*

Here we are presented with a perfect example of what sucks about
purchased, non open sourced software.  The vendor used to give new
license keys on re-installs without having to collect money (as well
they should)... now they "claim" they changed their policies and wrote
their end users about such change and are essentially holding us
hostage with the software... meaning if we don't give them money, they
won't run their keygen.  We never received such notification, and even
our reseller wasn't informed.  Imagine that!

Someone offered to try to write a FOSS package ... however,
considering the nature of this software, I don't know if it would be
possible to get the white papers on how to talk to the keycard
hardware.  I've not the time to research right now anyway.  I see
Glenn has a possible item for me to consider, so if I can get the
setup the way I want, maybe I can run that and see.

thanks everyone,
David



On 7/13/06, Kevin Flanagan <kevin at flanagannc.net> wrote:
> That's my point, if you have a Virtual Machine with everything installed
> then snapshot it off to DVD you don't ever reinstall the software.  So
> long as you only need the one copy running at a time you won't need to
> install the software again.
>
>
> The only catch I see with this, so far, is hardware support, if it's
> standard serial, parallel, or USB you should do fine, if it's some
> special card, you may have a challenge there.
>
>
> Kevin
>
> Barry Gaskins wrote:
> >   I dont think that any of these solutions are going to work.  The
> > program
> > is building a magic number using things that will be different on each
> > piece
> > of hardware.  Things like the mac address of the ethernet card, the bios
> > version number, the checksum from the ROM, ... and who knows what
> > else. I am
> > willing to bet that even if you figure out EXACTLY what changed on the
> > machine from before you install the key and after you install the key,
> > doing
> > the same thing on a different piece of hardware will not make the program
> > work.  The same thing will probably be true with a virtual machine (mac
> > address on the ethernet will still be different etc...)
> >
> >   It might work if you need to reinstall the software on the exact same
> > hardware, but if your hardware dies then you will be out of luck.
> >
> >   - Barry Gaskins
> >
> > On 7/12/06, Kevin Flanagan <kevin at flanagannc.net> wrote:
> >>
> >> Have you looked at a Virtual Machine solution?  You could snapshot it
> >> every now and then, if the hardware fails, just bring the new virtual
> >> machine up on a new server.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> David McDowell wrote:
> >> > Let me elaborate... I have a WinXP system (yup, this might be the OT
> >> > part) which has software on it that interfaces with our keycard
> >> > system.  This software is ours, we own it.  However, when you install
> >> > the software, somewhere, someplace there is a "Reference Code" created
> >> > (a different one each time you install the product) and you must call
> >> > the software vendor to have them put that code into their keygen to
> >> > get your "License Key" so that your software operates as registered.
> >> > In the past, we have called tech support and they have given us this
> >> > without question... well, today, as we moved this software to a new
> >> > piece of hardware... we are approached with this situation again, BUT
> >> > the software vendor now claims they will only generate license keys if
> >> > you maintain a $560/yr support contract with them (or a per incident
> >> > fee)... what crap I say!!!
> >> >
> >> > So, maybe there is an open source tool for this... maybe not, but my
> >> > question comes down to this.  We OWN this piece of software.  If I
> >> > choose to pay the per incident fee or at least pickup a contact for 1
> >> > year, I want to be able to do this.  I want to take a snapshot of the
> >> > machine PRIOR to entering in the license key, then I want a snapshot
> >> > of the machine AFTER entering the license key.  I want something to
> >> > compare these snapshots and tell me every file and every registry
> >> > entry which has changed.  My hope is that I will discover where their
> >> > hidden changes are occurring and if I have to re-install this software
> >> > again, I will be able to force an old "Reference Code" in place of the
> >> > automatically generated one by either replacing files or registry
> >> > entries and then enter the License Key which I know works for that
> >> > Reference Code OR simple replace all the files/reg entries that exist
> >> > AFTER the license key has been given such that the code and key are in
> >> > concurrance together.
> >> >
> >> > At any rate, this really upsets me what this vendor is doing.  We OWN
> >> > the piece of software and they are holding us hostage by forcing us to
> >> > pay to get a new license key just b/c we had to re-install the product
> >> > on a new machine (the old one crashed).  I know this kind of tool must
> >> > exist as virus, worm and spyware companies must use them to determine
> >> > what a particular item does to a system.  I'm hoping something exist
> >> > in the FOSS world that can help me even though this system is WinXP
> >> > and would need files and the registry snapshot and compared.
> >> >
> >> > Thanks!!
> >> > David McD
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