How can I Identify unique users on my website even IP is changed or browser data has been cleared?

Question

I am developing a video streaming website. I want to count unique views on each video. I referred to some sites on internet and even asked some other programmers. They say either use cookies or session or IP address. But these things changes over time. Also if possible can we do this using MAC address of the user's machine? Also I came across a similar question here -> http://bit.ly/Qh1KNR. They say there is something like browser fingerprint that uses MAC address. So can you tell me what method is the best one?

Answer 1

Yes, all those attributes can change and there is no certain way to detect whether the same person has watched the video twice. Someone can watch it once in school and another time at home with different browsers and IP addresses.

You best bet is probably with IP-addresses, counting some people twice and skipping some people (because of NAT enabled routers).

Another way is to only allow registered users to watch videos and record what they have seen.

Answer 2

You can not track a user with fingerprint. What fingerprint does is to collect some information about the operating system, time zone, fonts installed, plugins,... In some cases may work, but is not 100% true. In some eviroments (like schools, universities, etc) the operating system, browsers and almost all configuration may be the same and it is imposible for you to track an user.