How Java WebStart application Obtain the MAC address for accessing my webpage

Question

I am writing a java webstart application to deploy from website so users can click and run my software. I need to have a kind of unique machine identification to avoid abusing the accessing of the files. I would like to use the client's MAC address as a unique key so that the server can ensure that no client downloads too much.

Of course, a user may have multiple network cards, so how can my Java application determine the MAC address of the network card that the user is using to access my web site?

Answer 1

..machine identification..

Why not instead do a kind of 'session identification'? As each app. loads (you might want to implement the SingleInstanceService to enforce one app. per PC.) have it contact the server to establish an unique session. Use that to identify it for each request.

To thwart the user from 'using up' their allowance and stopping/restarting the app. (within a time limit), store some details using the PersistenceService.