Hard Drive based banning system?

[Coke]

Is a fullproof hardware ban really even possible? I don't think so... You're always going to be sending somthing over the net inorder to ban, and whatever you send can be changed. The random registry key thing works but not being able to play on other computers makes it not worth it.

The only 'fullproof' ban I can think of is somehow detecting if a players ip is a proxy, and even that has its problems (dynamic ip's). You can make it more difficult by making players register email addresses, or using some hardware method... It'll always be breakable though.

Our software here at work uses a unique hardware key to determine who can use the app. I believe it takes several keys from the hardware, jumbles them up a bit and uses the end result as a unique 'hardware ID'... seems to work.

Someone would have to replace their hard drive / processor / mob to re-connect in that case. That plus a 24 hour IP ban and permanent account banishment in one neat package would be a good way of getting people to stay away. When they get back on (because they will if they really want too, everyone does), hit them again. They'll soon get the message.