[TriLUG] machine comparing... possibly OT

[Kevin Flanagan]

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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