Web-based licensing solution for a desktop .NET product

Question

Hi, Please advise, is there any web-based licensing solution, where I can generate registration codes, and validate them in the software by connecting to my licensing server?

Thank you.

Answer 1

The first thing that comes to mind is that you could use some sort of private-key signing system to allow you to issue registration codes and then have your application verify that the registration code came from you.

That is, you could sign your registration codes with a private key and include the public key to verify the signature in your program that you are licensing.

If you want to limit the program to running on a specific computer, you could create some sort of hash representing the users computer and sign that with your private key as well.

I have been working with "Windows Identity Foundation", which uses private-key signing to check that a "security token" (a message indicating that a user is authenticated) actually came from one of my servers and not an imposter. I believe that you should be able to program your software to use a similar scheme to verify that a registration code is valid.

Answer 2

One solution is provided here

Also see discussion here for general info.

Answer 3

CryptoLicensing may fit your needs. It also comes with a ready-to-use license server for validating/activating licenses used in your Desktop app.

Answer 4

I'm a little hesitant to recommend a commercial product given the downvoting so far, but why not: I suggest you read the article Developing for Software Protection and Licensing and then evaluate OffByZero Cobalt.

Obligatory disclaimer: both product and article are produced by the company I co-founded.