Newbie question.

I want to positively identify a file on disk. The file host is in a LAN or the cloud and connected to the internet so the FTP address seems like the way to go. Does the IP address of an rented host in the cloud change from time to time?

How do you determine the FTP address of the file programmatically?

Thank you very much,

Alex

You should never rely on IP Addresses as they will almost certain change over time. However, URLs should always be unique since they are tied to the domain name.

Regardless if you need unique identifiers the domain by itself isn't going to help you still need unique filenames. Guids are reliable, but probably overkill if you assume the domain is part of the uniqueness - a 10 char identifier using GetUniqueId(8) from Web Connection 6.10 is probably enough.

+++ Rick ---

Thanks Rick. That's not exactly what I mean.

Our desktop app uses a dongle to verify that the installation is legit. I am looking for an alternative antipiracy method to use when it runs in the cloud using Terminal Server.

The characteristics of the computer in which the application is running are useless for verification since instances are virtual and unreliable. Since the app requires a particular encrypted table to exist in the data directory (in the file server) I want to use its exact location and content to determine if the installation is valid.

So, if our app can reliably determine the URL of the essential file then it can determine if that instance is authorized.

Thanks for the help.

Alex

Not sure if you can do that. Since anybody can connect there's no way to pin that down. If you have a registration process you can generate a unique id and a hash and store that somewhere, but that's more of a password approach. I don't think you can have a 'shared' application on TS and at the same guarantee unique access based on any physical aspects of hte machine or location. You'll need a software approach.

+++ Rick ---

Thank you Rick.

Alex

If I understand you, you may want to consider validating the source IP address on the server side against a table of custoemr IP's

If customer IP's constantly change, perhaps you could associte an IP with a customer record to prevent multiple instances from the same customer but on different IP addresses.

I use Serv-U for my FTP / SFTP servers instead of IIS, and it provides lots of security options and connectivity to other applications for user validation. You might want to consider that approach if the above doesn't do what you are after.

HTH