I thought I was being cute concerning coupons.com and printing more coupons than they would allow from 1 computer.
I used ShadowProtect to image the computer. THEN I installled their program and printed the 2 of the coupon I wanted. Tried printing #3 and it said I already printed my limit
I then restored the image. booted up and went to print the coupons. I had to install their program (confirming that I was running on the image created before I installed their printer software). It then said I had printed my limit before I could get any more coupons.
I then went to another PC on my network and installed their printer software and printed the 2 copies of the coupon I wanted. They came out OK, then on the 3rd, I got the note that I printed my limit.
So that experience is telling me they aren't using cookies or registry keys (because reimaging the computer didn't let me print more coupons).
And 2 machines on the same LAN with the router using NAT means that both machines requests are coming from the same IP address. They aren't keeping count based on the public IP. And the requests are coming from the MAC address of the router, not each PC< so they aren't basing this on the MAC address of the machine?
I am thinking they create an ID number for the computer based on the hardware / serial numbers, etc (like how microsoft activation works? It knows when you activate their software and if you change too much about your PC, it wants to get reactivated, thinking it was installed on another machine?
So does anyone know how coupons.com works? Is there a work around?
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