free trial script

[jbkons]

I am trying to devise a free trial system for a subscription website where users are offered a 30 day free trial. I plan on having them enter a username and password, but nothing else. I was wondering what the best way to prevent abuse of this free trial is; ie. to prevent people from simply creating new accounts all the time. I was thinking of having an email confirmation/activation, but is there any other ways of doing this. Thanks!

[prstudio]

you could check by email account / IP address / user name

the IP address would be the best one I feel, because it would limit them (hopefully to one computer) each time they log in - for example after the 30 days is up on one computer they would have to use another one - unless of course their IP changes which is not likely.

you might also want to check by password - if the same password keeps popping up under different names then it is more than likely the same person.

You could also narrow it down to more in-depth referrer variables.

[JohnLBW]

I would use email address with a verification to activate the account..

If you restrict it to ip address then if you have more than 1 person using their work pc it will pick them up as the same ip address.


also a lot of people here in the uk do not have a fixed IP from their ISP so each time they visit it will be with a different IP

John

[prstudio]

good points john :)

[hl]

the only way i can think of is creating a registry entry... im clueless as to how this is done... but its probably the best

[JohnLBW]

why over complicate things.

He then has to start messing with different operating systems etc...

The simplest way is email verification... A person registers... an email is sent with a click here that points to an asp script.. the click here has a get with a random number that is also in the registration database...

once the user clicks the link the asp page activates the account...

30 days later... its turned off...

You will need to get the users email address anyway incase they subscribe and forget their password...

The only thing is that someone may re-register using another email address - but they would eventually get bored of doing this...

John