> Because all of the software that we're now developing will be
> from this point
> on internet based, and because unique ID numbers do prevent
> piracy, we're
> building all of our software to register itself using the MAC
> number of the
> NIC card in the PC, which is a very similar number to the HPSUSAN.

If, like Microsoft's software licensing program, you plan to go easy on
this, this sounds like a pretty good idea. Off the top of my head, two
wrinkles come to mind.

Some NAT solutions also provide MAC address spoofing, which is not as bad as
it sounds. AT&T Broadband has, so far, and on this coast, been fairly
willing to get along with all those who use such solutions. And I understand
that they as a cable vendor, along with the DSL vendors, are all trying to
sell to small businesses. AT&T, for whatever reason, does require that
registered MAC address for their solution to work, even though one is
allowed to use their own NIC, if they wish.

Which brings me to my second puzzlement. NICs are cheap, and come in many
forms. While I have no idea what AICS's next software offerings will look
like, I know what my toy network looks like, and it is a mess. I have a
couple of NICs in the family PC, only one of which is in use. I plug my
wireless USB adapter into my toy server, to talk wirelessly to and from my
handheld PC. I wonder what MAC addresses are visible to what software, from
which system.

Greg Stigers
http://www.cgiusa.com

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