ISPs log the IP addresses assigned through DHCP to users with a timestamp.Therefore the user logged in using the IP address in question can always be traced back to the correct computer if it comes to proof for a court case.No mechanism will rely solely on IP address information.Most that use the data will merely check if an account isn't being accessed by IP addresses assigned to different geographic regions (for example Europe and Australia) in impossibly short times (say someone uses the account from Europe at 12:04 GMT and subsequently from Australia at 12:10 GMT the same day, this clearly indicates several people using the same account nearly simultaneously).Can it cause to the rejection of legitimate request? Yes, but highly unlikely.This would only happen if the same person were to log in first using one ISP and then using another which gets its IP range from another continent (for example someone using both T-online and AOL where he gets assigned an IP address from the US range when using AOL).That's why everyone of name also has a backup mechanism in case such failures of procedure happen.I know it's your agenda to discredit any and all methods to prevent software piracy so you probably won't like this :)

Sigh, you never cease to amaze me."I know it's your agenda to discredit any and all methods to prevent software piracy so you probably won't like this "I have NO AGENDA, and unless you can read minds, I think it would be good for you NOT to put words in my mouth.When prevention methods work, then I am happy, but if they are flawed, then I am not.I ASKED for comment, and the first part of your post is a good comment, shame you had to put in the last bit of rubbish."No mechanism will rely solely on IP address information."And you know this for a fact?.Dan.

A simple nslookup over the IP will give information about the domain. With this information it could be traced if the activation was made in different domains. If what is usually used is the country or the domain or the nameserver country, I don't know.Jos

Using IP information is a major problem for the reasons stated. I have a cable modem and I share an ISP (I have no choice) with others who shall we say are less than "ideal online citizens". For example, I play a lot of other multiplayer games. When I get a new IP through my ISP, it isn't unusual for me to be banned from half the game servers for something that the person who had the address before me did. It is also not unusual that I find myself unable to connect to certain websites. I can remote control into my work PC and try, then they work fine. While this doesn't happen all the time, it is often enough to be a problem. There is no reason to think that this same thing would not happen with flightsim addons. It is actually unusual for home PC users to have a static IP address. Generally getting a fixed IP involves paying additional charges. Anyway, that being said, I have yet to have any activation problems with any of my addons. I recently did a complete reinstall of flightsim, and I was able to reactivate all my addons quickly and painlessly (even from that company which has been the source of many a heated debate).

Hi Dan,from my own experience - my ISP is Germany

What I said above does work with dynamic IP. Even your dynamic IP bellongs to a domain. I don't believe that any protection scheme relies in the IP they must do it in the domain or the country.SW protection or multiplayer servers are different situations. In sw protection you want to see if a user is legit in Multiplayer server (or forum ban for example) you want to deny access. So it's expectable to have domain certification in the first case and IP ban in the second. At home I have dynamic IP and never got any problem with a SW protection that's why I believe the idea is correct.What you could argue is:What if the client changes ISP? That I don't know. However I believe that any protection scheme will rely in several factors: Domain, hardware hash, etc. Another factor is the possibility of periodic resets. A system could reset the protection each 3/6 months allowing the users to start fresh and get a new "key" for changed hardware.Jos

Yes as long as they continue to give you reactivation keys they are really nice guys ;)As soon as they stop they become pretty evil.But don

That does work fairly well, the only problem is when people from the same ISP try and pirate something. That might be an acceptible risk, but large national ISPs on the same domain can let too many slip through. If I was on their end of it trying to do it, that is the method I would use. You are still going to have some sort of backup as people move and change ISPs. Try telling people that the addon they bought is locked to a geographic region. There are lots of ways of doing it, unforunately I can't think of any that are foolproof. The way online games do it works best and is simple, give each user a unique cd key, and if two people join a game with the same key at the same time, shut down the key access. The problem with flightsim is that people don't necessarily go online, and we certainly can't force people to connect to the internet each time they use an addon.

Every machine has a specific hardware ID. A few machine binding addons poll the hardware ID and generate the required codes accordingly.Active Camera is 1 :)WindowsXP is another.FSD addons also use the machines hardware ID for locking the software.Basically the guys at FSD couldn't care less about the Dynamic IP#, you could be in a club that all share the same IP group. But the chances of the machine ID being the same is very small. That is what they are interested in.Without poking the fire but I hope they will soon lose that ludicrous system, unless they are prepared to alienate there sources of revenue.

People upgrade their PC hardware all the time. Especially flightsimmers :)

Hmm...I had to laugh as I read J.Wentings reply. Anybody who writes a reply like that is either remarkably stupid, or remarkably naive.In england where i come from, we'd say he's talking out of his a*se, but it wouldn't be the first time for him, I look upon him as the court jester here on the forum, but i digress.....Due to this whole IP problem, and FSD's inability to understand how modern internet connections work, I have been denied my aircraft from FSD, for which I paid $153.80. The stated reason was: I have dl'ed to 9 different IP'S, or as they put it " nine different computers" :+ In other words, they think because my IP was different every time, that it was a different computer every time, :)Which cave have you been living in for the last few years, guys?Despite me explaining that I have an ISP (Deutsche Telekom) that uses dynamic IP's, and despite being able to prove that at least one of these IP's was NEVER allocated to my connection (A blind man can see that with the list they sent me from their server btw, it's completly different to all the others), they were adament that I had dl'ed my aircraft 9 times to 9 different computers. I also explained to them at some length that this came about due to an unbelieveable run of bad luck with my hardware (2 mobos, 2 HD's, 1 PSU and one virus among other things)Despite all this, they have refused to let me dl my aircraft, so I'm $153.80 poorer, and also don't have my Cheyenne400, Seneca, Commander 115, Porter and Navajo any more to boot! That's good customer service? Thankyou FSD! Nice to do business with you guys!They havn't even had the common decency to answer my mails, after the customer gets too uppity, they just ignore him! I guess I can use my printed reciepts with the reg nr and password as toilet paper now :+I'm not interested in their aircraft any more, I'd just get a bad taste in my mouth when I flew them now, although the Cheyenne was my favorite aircraft of all time. I would find it honerable from them if they'd do the decent thing, and give me my money back. Being out of work for the last two years with two kids to feed, i could use the money, :) rant over, I feel better now, :)RegardsGrahame (EDHL)

Which makes the whole system even more silly, wouldn't you say?

Personal attacks are not tolerated.Thread locked.

I am aware that many Addon purchasers are encountering problems, possibly due to the fact that they have dynamic IP addresses.Many Addon security features are based on the fact that a client downloads and activates there addon through a particular IP address.In Europe, not sure about the US or elsewhere, many people are on a dynamic IP system where by everytime they dial-up, or connect to the internet they are allocated a dynamic IP from their ISP's "pool" of IP's.Could this lead to false reports of piracy?, say customer X buys addon Y, and for whatever reason has to reinstall his OS and number of times, due to the fact customer X has a dynamic IP ,everytime he requests an "unlock" it looks as though the request is coming from a different PC, although, at closer look the company could see a pattern in the IP's, "normally" ISP's use a "bank" of IP's, so they could use the range 200.100.200.100 to 200.100.300.500, and as such a "pattern" of IP's would be clear to the company.Does this infact lead to a very big, and bad flaw in this system?, could this be artifically inflating the reports of piracy?, could many legitimate users be being denied further unlock requests?Does having a dynamic IP increase the risk of having unlock requests refused?, I would be interest to hear your thoughtsDan.