The XT kit doesn't provide a reliable solution for machine identification on Windows systems.
We have several thousand FNE XT protected clients and on Windows systems, using the first reported Ethernet Adapter has not proven to be a reliable method of identifying a machine. Depending on the hardware, the first reported Adapter may disappear when the machine is not connected to WiFi or when the user switches off WiFi. Furthermore there are some Ethernet connectivity solutions that will regularly report a different Adapter Address. The problem here is not simply that the reported Ethernet Adapter changes, but that it may disappear, leaving an invalid id in Trusted Storage.
To a lesser extent we saw a similar issue with MAC systems (using the XT kit FlcGetHostIds() call) although we were able to overcome this by writing our own method to query Ethernet Adapter more consistently and then specify this adapter using FlcSetDefaultHostId() with the FLC_HOSTID_TYPE_ETHERNET type. The solution for MAC systems is now reliable.
Having previously used FNP, it seems that FNE XT kit should offer a similar machine identification API with the ability to repair a broken binding. Another approach might be to allow more than one Ethernet Adapter address to be associated with the license feature binding. I'm aware of other systems that use this approach with success.
I'm interested to hear what others experience is here and what solutions you have found. It may be possible to implement a custom machine identification solution and then use a custom string Host ID type rather than Ethernet Address Host ID, however I am concerned that using a Custom String could introduce a weakness in the protection that could be exploited more easily but perhaps this concern is unfounded.
Thoughts Flexera or other FNE XT customers?
Yes we have experimented with hostid-type filters in the identity.
