NetROCKEY4ND

An Enhanced Driverless Version of NetROCKEY4

 

netrockey4nd-2017

Intro

NetROCKEY4ND is the network version of ROCKEY4ND which supports all the same functions as ROCKEY4ND other than that it furthermore shields an application across a network for a preconfigured number of simultaneous individuals. With NetROCKEY4ND, you do not just have the ability to protect several applications or application modules under various license setups, but likewise can pre-set the number of users who can access your application.

It not just supports TCP/IP, IPX and NETBIOS methods, however also offers a server-based network service program. Developers just have to compose program for customer end. Numerous servers, Computers and individuals are supported. Every module of NetROCKEY4ND can support up to 65534 clients at the same time while the service program stays protected from adjustment and immune to viruses.

Why NetRockey4ND?

Best Choice for New NetROCKEY4 Customers

For any new customer who are interested to try NetROCKEY4 network models, definitely NetROCKEY4ND is the better choice compared to NetROCKEY4. New customers should use NetROCKEY4ND from the start unless customer also need LPT model for end users using older version of Operating System that do not support USB port.

Consideration for existing NetROCKEY4 Customers

However, for existing NetROCKEY4 customers, you can still consider whether you should make such changes on your future order with the considerations below:

  • USB Model only – Since NetROCKEY4ND is only available on USB model, you shouldn’t consider upgrade if you are currently using mainly LPT model.
  • Extensive Use of Memory – If you make extensive use of NetROCKEY4 Internal Memory for your protection implementation. NetROCKEY4ND come with bigger memory, i.e. 1000 bytes User Data Zone, 64 Module Zones, and 128 User Defined Algorithms.
  • Convenience of Driverless option – If you prefer a more user friendly and convenient implementation of NetROCKEY4ND, completely Plug & Play without any device driver installation needed. Indirectly, this will eliminate potential end user technical support issue arising from device driver problem.

Product Detail

FAQ

This FAQ or frequently asked questions section will help you resolve some questions you or your customers may run into when using ROCKEY4 Software Protection products. We have listed the questions and the answers here for your reference.

The Developer’s Kit or DK is a preset package we send to developers for the purpose of evaluation. It includes one Developer’s Guide, SDK CD-ROM, and DEMO ROCKEY4/NetROCKEY4 dongles. The only difference between these DEMO dongles and the commercial dongles is that their passwords are publicly known. When the user decides to purchase and use ROCKEY4/NetROCKEY4 after evaluation, we will provide ROCKEY4/NetROCKEY4 dongles with secure and unique passwords.

The purchase code is intended for order management. You should use it if you need to reorder dongles with the same passwords as your previous order. This Purchase Code is unique for all of ROCKEY’s customers.

ROCKEY’s manufacturing process guarantees that each ROCKEY4 dongle is unique. The Hardware Identifier (HID) is a globally unique serial number that is burned into each dongle and cannot be changed by anyone, including the manufacturer. Passwords are specific to a customer and cannot be duplicated for another customer. It is our mission to protect the assets of our customers and we will requre separate security agreement with our customers if required.

Yes, it is very secure. The ROCKEY4/NetROCKEY4 password is actually a set of four individual passwords that authorize two security levels. The two Basic passwords authorize read-only access to the dongle. Read and Write access is authorized only with the combination of the Basic and Advanced password sets. The Advanced password set is meant for the developer and should not appear in the software that goes to the end user.

Each Dongle has 4 16-bit passwords. If a hacker wants to crack the dongle by exhaustion, the number of possible combinations is 264. If one computation takes 10-20 seconds, it would take 58 years to try every combination.

“Same-number” ROCKEY4/NetROCKEY4 dongles are a set of dongles that have the same passwords. There will be a Purchase Code that corresponds to the “same-number” dongles. Most of our customers have all their respective dongles share the same password, so that they only need to compile their programs once before distribution.

The simplest way is to order new dongles with new passwords. Another way is to provide proof that you are the legitimate holder of the purchase code. Only the legitimate purchase code holder may obtain the passwords from ROCKEY.

ROCKEY4/NetROCKEY4 operates the parallel port through the device driver, and uses error correction technology at the communication protocol level. Therefore, it is compatible with most printers. However, there are a few models of printers that receive a large amount of current or electricity when powered off. This can cause a voltage shortfall to the dongle and result in a communication problem with the dongle driver. This problem can be easily solved by turning on the printer or removing the printer cable from the dongle.

  • The older version of the ROCKEY4/NetROCKEY4 drivers only supported normal printing modes. The newer version support normal, EPP and ECP modes. Be sure you are using the latest version of our driver. You may download the driver from our product page download section. Another solution to this problem would be to simply switch to the USB version of the ROCKEY4/NetROCKEY4dongle. There is no extra programming required to switch to USB.
  • The compatibility of the LPT dongle and printer may be enhanced by setting the port in the CMOS or BIOS setup to EPP or ECP. An example using the AWARD system BIOS is given below:“Reboot the computer, press the DEL key to enter CMOS Setup. Select the menu option “INTEGRATED PERIPHERALS”. Then use either PAGEUP or PAGEDOWN key to change the “Parallel Port Mode” option.”

There are emulation programs that record all of the port accesses between the dongle and the driver. The emulation software then attempts to replicate the accesses after the dongle is removed. ROCKEY4/NetROCKEY4 has built in countermeasure for this sort of emulation. Lower layer communications between the dongle, driver and application is encoded. There is also “random noise” applied to the protocol communications so that any information recorded by the emulation program will be invalid from session to session. In addition, emulation software of this type will not work with USB devices. You may implement your own countermeasures to enhance this protection. The judicious use of seed code protection methods will make such attacks very difficult to implement successfully.

It is quite easy to prevent data sharing devices from doing this. Just generate a random number when the program starts, and write this number in a specific address in the ROCKEY4/NetROCKEY4 dongle, then check for the number in that specified address when the program is running or executing to see if it is the same number you have written. If another computer is also running the program during this period, and is using the same dongle, another random number would have been written to this address.

No. According to the results of our tests, the performance difference between the simplest algorithm and the most complex is within a dozen milliseconds. You will not notice any difference as long as you do not call the algorithm too frequent.

USB stands for Universal Serial Bus. Now it is a very common interface standard and is already implemented in many devices. Please visit www.usb.org for more details. Its advantages include plug and play capabilities, hot-swap support and high transfer rate. It can support up to 127 USB devices connected through extensions. USB eliminates conflict problems with printers and other peripheral devices.

No. They are fully compatible, other than the requirement that you install the USB drivers. The USB device will prompt you, automatically, to install the driver.

It may be caused by interference or bad contact points. Try unplugging the device and then plugging it in again.

It is possible that the USB support option inside the BIOS has been disabled. You can enable USB support in the CMOS functions menu when your computer is booting up.

If you are using or testing ROCKEY products, we will send our updates to you when there are any. You may also download the latest development packages and updates from our product page download section.

There are 4 possible causes for this:

A: The printer attached to ROCKEY4/NetROCKEY4 is powered off.

If a printer or any other peripheral device is attached to the parallel port ROCKEY4/NetROCKEY4, you should turn the power of that device on. ROCKEY4/NetROCKEY4 dongles require a voltage of about 2.2 volts, and this power is supplied by the mainboard through the parallel port so if a peripheral device is attached to the ROCKEY4/NetROCKEY4 dongle, the dongle may not receive enough power to be activated.

B: ROCKEY4/NetROCKEY4 does not support the parallel mode.

The diversity of computers leads to many different parallel modes, ROCKEY4/NetROCKEY4 dongles support most modes, but for some special modes it is possible that the system cannot find ROCKEY4/NetROCKEY4, or ROCKEY4/NetROCKEY4 dongles do not work well with them. What you need to do is change the parallel modes, eg. set the port mode in the CMOS setup to ECP. If the operating system is Windows NT/2000, you may have to reinstall the system after you have changed the parallel port modes.

C: The drivers are not properly installed.

ROCKEY4/NetROCKEY4 requires the installation of drivers, so the settings of drivers may affect the operation of ROCKEY4/NetROCKEY4. There are 4 options when installing the drivers: “Install ROCKEY4/NetROCKEY4 parallel driver”, “Install ROCKEY4/NetROCKEY4 USB driver”, “Detect-print-busy mode” and “Not-detect-print-busy mode”, we suggest users to choose “Install ROCKEY parallel driver”, “Install ROCKEY USB driver”, and “Detect-print-busy mode”. In Windows NT/2000 only the administrator has the privilege to install drivers.

D: ROCKEY4/NetROCKEY4 is not compatible with other devices.

The parallel port was not designed to connect many devices at the same time, and in theory only one device can be attached to the parallel port at any one time. With the users in mind, ROCKEY4/NetROCKEY4 was designed to allow the standard devices, such as printers and scanners, to attach to it, but we cannot guarantee that ROCKEY4/NetROCKEY4 is compatible with all these devices. Unplug the device attached to ROCKEY/NetROCKEY to see if it is a compatibility problem.

Perhaps the drivers are not properly installed. Please refer to solution C for Question 18.

The indicator LED may help you to find the reason for this. If the indicator is bright all the time, it indicates that the dongle works well; if it blinks once every second, it indicates that the drivers are not properly installed or something is wrong with the USB port, or the dongle is defective. If the indicator is not bright and the system prompts “Found USB Device”, it indicates the dongle is defective, otherwise there is a bad connection or something is wrong with the USB port.

To check the USB port: when you first attach ROCKEY4/NetROCKEY4 to the computer the system should prompt “Found USB Device” and install the drivers for it, otherwise the USB port might have problem, which is usually caused by incorrect installation of the drivers for the USB controller or the USB function is disabled in CMOS setup, or there is a hardware failure in the USB port of the mainboard. You should test the USB port with another USB device, such as a USB mouse.

Because the parallel or LPT port ROCKEY4/NetROCKEY4 works between the computer and peripheral device, it is affected by both of them. The number one cause for ROCKEY4/NetROCKEY4 damage is because of over-voltage. In order to avoid damage by this, you should make sure that the ground wire is connected to the ground, and it is also connected to the computer casing. When you connect the devices together, you should turn off the power in advance. If you cannot connect the ground wire to the ground, then you should turn off the power and unplug the power plugs in advance to avoid power operation problems.

When users have several applications protected with different ROCKEY4/NetROCKEY4s, they may cascade these dongles together. In most cases there is no problem for them to work together, but sometimes when you try to use one application you are given the message “Can not find ROCKEY”.

When system sends its request to ROCKEY4/NetROCKEY4, a value will be returned to specify the next operation. If several dongles are cascaded, every dongle will receive the request and respond to it, so it is possible the return signals interfered one another, making the system confused, thus make it cannot recognize the dongle.

If restarting the computer solves this problem, it indicates that you did not set a value for p3 and p4 when you wrote the program. So after a period of time it returns the error “Too many dongles opened”, and you cannot open it again. Set a value, such as “0”, to p3 and p4 to resolve this problem. If restarting your computer does not resolve the problem, then some of the possibilities are: the dongle is defective, your computer is infected with a virus, the parallel port settings have been changed, some other device is attached to the ROCKEY4/NetROCKEY4 dongle, or the system has been reinstalled.

Troubleshotting

This section provides some troubleshooting suggestion related to technical support issues arises from end user implementation on NetROCKEY4ND.

This faq or frequently asked questions are for troubleshooting purposes or technical support.

Step 1 : Unplug NetROCKEY4 dongle from Server PC, uninstall ROCKEY4 driver completely and reboot the system.

Step 2 : Reinstall NetROCKEY4 driver, please make sure you are using latest ROCKEY4’s driver.

Step 3 : Plug NetROCKEY4 to the Server PC and run ROCKEY4 Editor to change on the dongle, if NetROCKEY4 is found, then NetROCKEY4‘s driver is working fine. Else uninstall -> reboot -> reinstall -> reboot then repeat Step 3. If problem, try with another port or Server PC.

Step 4 : Run the NrSvr.exe and make sure it can find the plugged NetROCKEY4 (right click in server tray icon -> Find).

Step 5 : Make sure the network connection works properly between Server and Client PC. Try standard network tools like PING.

Step 6 : Make sure the CliCfg.ini is properly configured in the Client PC.

Step 7 : Disconnect the Server PC from the Internet and then deactivate any Firewalls/Antivirus. Then try to connect to the server from the Client PC, use NrTest with properly configured CliCfg.ini.

Step 8 : Make sure to read all about NetROCKEY4 in the manual first. Such as how to configure the Module Zone for NetROCKEY4 operation.

For the error -1, it means that the error is an unknown error, but it is not serious, such as when a PC hangs or freezes, you only have to restart it and if that does not solve the problem you have to look for alternative solutions.

There can be several possible causes for this:

A: The printer attached to NetROCKEY4 is powered off.

If a printer or any other peripheral device is attached to the parallel port NetROCKEY4, you should turn the power of that device on. NetROCKEY4 dongles require a voltage of about 2.2 volts, and this power is supplied by the mainboard through the parallel port, so if a peripheral device is attached to the NetROCKEY4 dongle, the dongle may not receive enough power to be activated.

B: NetROCKEY4 does not support the parallel mode.

The diversity of computers leads to many different parallel modes, NetROCKEY4 dongles support most modes, but for some special modes it is possible that the system cannot find NetROCKEY4, or NetROCKEY4 dongles do not work well with them. What you need to do is to change the parallel modes, eg. set the port mode in the CMOS setup to ECP or vice versa. If the operating system is Windows NT/2000, you may have to reinstall the driver after you have changed the parallel port modes.

C: The drivers are not properly installed.

NetROCKEY4 requires the installation of drivers, so the settings of drivers may affect the operation of NetROCKEY4. There are 4 options when installing the drivers: “Install NetROCKEY parallel driver”, “Install NetROCKEY USB driver”, “Detect-print-busy mode” and “Not-detect-print-busy mode”, we suggest users to choose “Install NetROCKEY parallel driver”, “Install NetROCKEY USB driver”, and “Detect-print-busy mode”. In Windows NT/2000 only the administrator has the privilege to install drivers.

D: NetROCKEY4 is not compatible with other devices.

The parallel port is not designed to connect many devices at the same time, and in theory only one device can be attached to the parallel port at any one time. With the users in mind, NetROCKEY4 was designed to allow the standard devices, such as printers and scanners, to attach to it, but we cannot guarantee that NetROCKEY4 is compatible with all these devices. Unplug the device to see if it is a compatibility problem.

E: NetROCKEY4 is not compatible with certain PCI-based Parallel Add-on cards

Another issue is that NetROCKEY4 LPT cannot work with certain PCI-based parallel port cards. NetROCKEY4 will treat the card as a sort of hack attack and therefore refuse to communicate with it or the card does not supply enough power to the dongle for it to operate efficiently. If this is the case, we suggest using a USB port NetROCKEY4 instead.

F: There may be a driver or software conflict on the system

Sometimes, the PC drivers may be conflicted or it may be conflict with any of the programs although this is highly rare. Solution: Restart the PC and run the program again. If it still cannot run, try starting up the PC with minimal drivers and programs and check to see if it can run. If it can, this means that it is a software conflict.

G: Driver is busy

This error can occur when the driver or dongle is busy and/or communications between the dongle and PC are interrupted. To rectify this situation, you can add a loop to your program when checking for the dongle. This will ensure that the program will check for the dongle more than once and be able to recognize it properly.

NetROCKEY4 requires the installation of drivers, so the settings of drivers may affect the operation of NetROCKEY4. There are 4 options when installing the drivers: “Install NetROCKEY parallel driver”, “Install NetROCKEY USB driver”, “Detect-print-busy mode” and “Not-detect-print-busy mode”, we suggest users to choose “Install NetROCKEY parallel driver”, “Install NetROCKEY USB driver”, and “Detect-print-busy mode”. In Windows NT/2000 only the administrator has the privilege to install drivers.

The indicator LED may help you to find the reason for this. If the indicator is lit all the time, it indicates that the dongle works well; if it blinks once every second, it means drivers are not installed or something wrong with the USB port; otherwise the dongle is defective. If the indicator is not lit at all and the system prompts “Found USB Device”, it indicates the dongle is defective, otherwise there is a bad connection or something wrong with the USB port.

To check the USB port: when you first attach NetROCKEY4 to the computer the system should prompt “Found USB Device” and install the drivers for it, otherwise the USB port must have a problem, which is usually caused by the incorrect installation of the drivers for the USB controller or the USB function is disabled in CMOS setup, or there is a hardware failure in the USB port of the mainboard. You may test the USB port with another USB device, such as a USB mouse.

NetROCKEY works fine with most USB hubs. On rare occasions the dongle may not be detected through the hub due to inadequate output voltage. Please check the integrity of the USB port by trying a different USB device in the same port. For USB 2.0 hubs in particular, please make sure that the power supply is connected.

It may be caused by interference or bad contact points. Try unplugging the device and then plugging it in again.

It is possible that the USB support option inside the BIOS has been disabled. You can enable USB support in the CMOS functions menu when your computer is booting up.

Although the file NrClient.dll is under the same directory as the program, FoxPro and VB programs will sometimes only search for DLLs under the system directory, so you should copy the file NrClient.dll into the system directory.

When users have several applications protected with different NetROCKEY4s, they may cascade these dongles together. In most cases there are no problem for them to work together, but sometimes when you try to use one application you are given the message “Cannot find NetROCKEY”.

  • When the system sends its request to NetROCKEY4, a value will be returned to specify the next operation. If several dongles are cascaded, every dongle will receive the request and respond to it, so it is possible the return signals interfered by one another, making the system puzzled, and will not be able to recognize the dongle.

NetROCKEY4 does not currently support enveloping on DOS-based programs, only Windows-based programs can be enveloped at this point.

You will still need to install the drivers for the dongles either using the InstDrv.exe installation file or InstDLL.dll file. Otherwise, the dongles will not be able to be detected by the system and your program will give you an error. If you have already installed the proper drivers, please refer to question 2 above.

There should be no discernible difference between the two. Both are equally effective.

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