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ANS (Apple Network Server) IPT Demo uShare Software

aplmak

Well-known member
Hey everyone,

So I am trying to obtain a legal license and/or license key for IPT's OPI/uShare software that runs on AIX 4.1.4. Of course it's so old I am not sure they even exist anymore or if they would even provide it for purchase. In trying out the uShare software it appears the demo will allow you to mount the uShare drive from the ANS but then it warns you every minute it will disconnect in 15 minutes. I have a feeling this is how they made it a demo version.. I just have searched and searched and have no idea where I could obtain a license for it... Any ideas???
 

aplmak

Well-known member
This is what the licensing looks like. I cannot seem to locate the company.. It no longer exists.. so I guess you would call that "abandonware" I suppose....
 

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aplmak

Well-known member
Come on gang... anyone out there might be able to help me out with an activation key. There is no way to get in touch with the company.. I don't think anyone even acquired it. Perhaps someone will see this post and be willing to PM me. Here are some additional screenshots of the software that runs on Apple Network Servers. I've searched and searched on the internet... Nothing..
 

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cheesestraws

Well-known member
I seem to remember last time I looked for this company, I ended up at an obituary, so yeah, I think "getting hold of the company" is probably not going to happen here, unfortunately.
 

aplmak

Well-known member
Uggghhhh yeah I think they are gone and buried.... But I am hoping someone on here who knows programming and such could decipher this for me... It's for posterity really not actual production use.. and again it literally is abandonware so hopefully no administrator will have an issue.. Attached is my actual "Host ID" which is needed to generate the proper key. I'd like to get all the features if possible.. Anyone out there who knows a programmer who might be able to come up with some suggestions I'd be most grateful. So in this photo is the actual key that needs to be generated... I'm not a programmer so this may be simple I don't know... again any of you know someone out there could you pass this on??

Happy Holidays to everyone!!!!!
 

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chillin

Well-known member
I can help you with that, if "that" is finding productive things to do on your ANS w/ AIX. If you want to bang your head against something, try to get pkgsrc operational.

Once you get pkgsrc working, you can install a decent hex editor. And if you can't get it working, you can still try to use od
which od
/usr/bin/od
man od

But learning to and using od is probably harder than installing pkgsrc. Looks like there are other suggestions for package management

RPM may install, but I doubt it. There used to be hex editors available in AIX archives, but I can't find any archives for AIX 4

A hex editor is an essential tool for cracking software protection.
So I wasn't just leading you down a blind alley, but possibly into a dependency hell of an alley, but if you survive it, you can look forward to using a spoon (hex editor) to sift and move a mountain. People have done it. I think it takes a lot of staring at decompiled code and probably some luck. But it can be done. Enjoy!
 
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aplmak

Well-known member
I’ve used hex editors for serials before.. just never on a Unix platform.. I’ll tinker with it eventually 😊
 

aplmak

Well-known member
If there is anyone out there good at working with Hex Editors please PM me!! I don’t mind donating to the cause 😊😊😊
 

gcp

Well-known member
When you say "good at working with hex editors", are you asking for help actually editing bits, or do you need help with the actual cracking process - figuring out which bits need editing in the first place? The former should be trivial. If the latter, you're probably best off with a debugger rather than a hex editor to start with..
 

aplmak

Well-known member
Sorry yes debugging it would work. I’ve never debugged a program.

Thanks for any help if your willing
 

aplmak

Well-known member
Sure I can do that.. I'll try to do that ASAP.. :) Thank you.. I'll post when I have done so.
 

aplmak

Well-known member
Ok it’s been uploaded to Macintosh Garden and listed under “IPT” My computer would not allow me to image it in ISO so it’s a DMG image.. sorry
 

Pookie64

New member
New user, was trying to find more information on uShare. I don't have the software, but I do have some docs for a Sun SPARC version of uShare. From that I can tell the serials are generated via some hash of the Host ID. Is it the same on AIX?
 

Pookie64

New member
it seems so from your previous info. I have an actual Key / Host ID combination from a Sun SPARC. That might help someone reverse engineer the mechanism for you.
 

aplmak

Well-known member
Hey Pookie yes I think your right it uses some of the host id's info as well. I just wonder if there was a back door key that could be gotten that just works without it having to check the host id and what not. I mean this was the late 90's.. I don't think it was that crazy of a key.. but I could be wrong. It's not like this software was really popular..
 

scrutinizer

New member
As someone who worked at that company in the 90s, I can confirm that it is long gone. I talked with an engineer I know that worked there as well and we couldn't come up with some way to bypass it, neither of us worked on the key generation aspects. I tried but it was a loooong time ago.

It's not like this software was really popular..
You may be surprised to learn a rather large news publication in London had a half dozen Sparc servers running this software in the 90s for their pre-press workflow, as well as publications in Scotland, Ireland, Italy, Germany, Austria, The Netherlands and Japan. I know, I got to work out of our UK office and support them all. However, never mainstream popular :)

I really wish I could help, but unfortunately as someone mentioned their investigation led them to obits... The last people to work on this project are no longer with us.

You may be better off seeing if there is another way to achieve the functionality you desire. Is it mainly the filesharing aspect? Maybe it can be accomplished with an SMB share? While that product did work well in the 90s I have no idea how it will work now and if anything breaks there is no one that can fix it.
 

aplmak

Well-known member
New user, was trying to find more information on uShare. I don't have the software, but I do have some docs for a Sun SPARC version of uShare. From that I can tell the serials are generated via some hash of the Host ID. Is it the same on AIX?
Hey I believe so.. running the command they instruct which is # /usr/bin/uname -m and on my machine I get a result of: 0026157F4c00
 
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