Looking to make a new bot....

Hello everyone, I've been doing some marketing for some time now and have decided to go the path of creating a great piece of software that will help everyone in making money online. Here are some of the questions that I have:

1. What language should I program in? Java or Visual Basic?

These are the two languages that I have been studying for years and are comfortable with. The question is, which one would be more appealing to a majority of customers? Java is multiplatform, yet VB is user friendly and powerful in itself.

2. How can I prevent people from sharing the software?

I've seen licenses given out that will activate the product, but do I need to keep it on my own servers? Or should I just give the whole .exe file as is?

3. How do I go about updating my software?

That was another one that I had. I really feel like every time someone uses the software, it needs to go to my server to find if I released an update. Any help with this.

Has anyone created software for sale and wants to throw a few pointers my way? I would greatly appreciate it.

To all of your success,
Sypherblade

I would be interested in knowing this all too

hey there,
I would recommend vb and not java.
You should put registration window and check your db if the users registration code is valid every minute. You should create an updating system ( you will check a file on your server if the users has the last version , and if he dosent then start downloading the last version).
I assume you will outsource this project , so my suggestion is to find an experience coder , he will know how to manage all this stuff

Good Luck

Hi, about licensing, you should have licensing server and your software should check the license each interval of time. also the code for the licensing should be encrypted not your software to be easily cracked.
also about release update, it can be done by checks to your server for update file, then if found update the operation of updating happens by replacing some libraries or dlls to reflect your update.
to find coders you may go to freelancer.com and open project.
but take sometime selecting suitable coders and who have excellent reviews 9+/10.

i would use visual basic. And here is a little present that will save you a ton of time and effort.

http://webiussoft.com/Home.aspx

This program is 50 bucks but it will be very worth it if your are serious about this program. Watch the demo video.

zacatictac said:

i would use visual basic. And here is a little present that will save you a ton of time and effort.

http://webiussoft.com/Home.aspx

This program is 50 bucks but it will be very worth it if your are serious about this program. Watch the demo video.

Click to expand...

Looks really interesting. Will give my reviews once i get my hands on it.

1. VB.NET or C#

to kind of answer both 2 and 3, there are various ways but nothing is perfect. depending on what the software does a good marriage of copy protection and easy update ability would be creating a web application and using a "software as a service" or SaSS model.

that way unless someone gains access to your server they can't really hijack your code base, and pushing updates becomes a matter of just dropping the newly compiled project files on your production machine.

if you want to go with a windows application you can do an automatic updater in the form of something that checks a web site every so often and downloads the updates accordingly. there are various articles around in relation to extending this ability via .NET

as for copy protection, that becomes pretty tough when you're talking about an executable that runs locally on your client's machine. there are various techniques associated with this too. everything from having it spider a web url to authorize every time it runs to generating a unique key for each machine that the product is licensed to, but none of them are 100% secure.

if i've said it once, i've said it at least three times. a determined individual will always be able to gain access to your application without purchasing it. microsoft, adobe, and the like spend millions developing anti copy features and to date have been almost completely unsuccessful.

A cheap low level licensing is making the soft check for a resource on your server, if it's there, continue loading / running.

Like for example client's copy number 234 connects to sypherblade.info/234.jpg. If it gets a 200 OK all is well. If it gets a 404 -> exit. Run the check every x seconds from 20 different subs, obfuscate the whole thing and it won't be that easy to crack it with usual decompilling / JMPs etc. You can make a different version for every buyer (automate it). This way you can pull the plug at any time.

This can be dealt with through manipulating the hosts file but what's stopping your program to check that same file for any suspicious records

Not perfect or great but it's free.