Web Programming Question

[JamIt]

Before I begin, just wanted to share that is question is not for 'hacking' or any malicious reasons.

Alright, does anyone know if its possible to return the volume id of a drive on a client machine from a web page.  Namely an active server page.  My company is trying to track usage of our COM objects that are serving info to some web pages.

I know there is a fella somewhere on these boards that posts the clients IP address (and other client info) in their sig.

Thanks,
JamIt

[bionicbadger]

ITs easy to return the IP information and requesting client information since that information is sent to your web server anyway.  Client machines don't ever send their drive volume info for any reason that I know of, you would need a specific request for that, and it is probably doable if you write some really invasive java code and the clients actually allow it to run with really low security settings.

[rampy]

Before I begin, just wanted to share that is question is not for 'hacking' or any malicious reasons.

Alright, does anyone know if its possible to return the volume id of a drive on a client machine from a web page.  Namely an active server page.  My company is trying to track usage of our COM objects that are serving info to some web pages.

I know there is a fella somewhere on these boards that posts the clients IP address (and other client info) in their sig.

Thanks,
JamIt

So what you are looking for is essentially to have us show you how to build spyware =)

There's got to be a better way for you to figure out/track usage of your product.  Like surveys, email registration, unlock codes (even if free)...  automated reporting is usually frowned upon...

You (your company that is) might want to rethink it's approach to market penetration research =)

rampy

PS that's just my opinion...

[SirPoonga]

I know there is a fella somewhere on these boards that posts the clients IP address (and other client info) in their sig.

That's just a script displaying HTTP vars.   There are many things an HTTP connection stores.

As for what you want, yeah, it's frowned upon unless the you make a point to document it well and let the user know it;s happening.

I agree, there has to be a better way.  Why would you need the volume id?  Going to scan it for your stuff.  That would DEFINATELY be a big no no.

[screaming]

Before I begin, just wanted to share that is question is not for 'hacking' or any malicious reasons.

Alright, does anyone know if its possible to return the volume id of a drive on a client machine from a web page.  Namely an active server page.  My company is trying to track usage of our COM objects that are serving info to some web pages.

I know there is a fella somewhere on these boards that posts the clients IP address (and other client info) in their sig.

Thanks,
JamIt

  Yeah, you could do this pretty easily using ActiveX plugin. The user would be prompted asking if they wanted to run the control or not though, so you'd have issues if you wanted to do it covertly.. But as other people have stated, if you do this without letting the user know you are doing it one way or another, you will be joining the ranks of Gator and DoubleClick (and no, it's not a happy place to be) whether it was malicious or not.

  Keep it REAL, and don't contribute to the deliquency of the web.

/Steve

[JamIt]

Thanks for the info fellas.  Honestly, no malicious intent here.  My company licenses out various COM objects and we use the volume id to validate usage.  Some fellow coworkers felt we could use same techniques for the websites that we deliver.  I had a feeling it was going the the spyware road.
Thanks for the confirmation,
JamIt