How to limit concurrent login to a J2EE web application

[ningjun.wang]

We have a commercial J2EE web application. Our users pay monthly fee to
get a login. After login, they can search and browse all articles in
our web site. The problem is that some user buy one login id and then
share it to many friends who did not pay. We want to limit the
concurrent login to 5. This means if 5 users login to our site using
the same login id already, no other user can login with the same login
id anymore until some of them logout or close their browser.

This is a very common problems for any commercial web application. Is
there a design pattern or existing framework to deal with this problem?

Ningjun

 

[Manish Pandit]

the same login id already, no other user can login with the same login
id anymore until some of them logout or close their browser.

The problem is not so much about tracking concurrent log-ins, but more
about tracking log-outs. So, in this case, even if 5 users with same
credentials log in and immediately close their browsers, the 6th person
should be able to log in. On the other hand, the server will not
invalidate the 5 sessions unless there is a timeout.

-cheers,
Manish

 

[Carramba]

We have a commercial J2EE web application. Our users pay monthly fee to
get a login. After login, they can search and browse all articles in
our web site. The problem is that some user buy one login id and then
share it to many friends who did not pay. We want to limit the
concurrent login to 5. This means if 5 users login to our site using
the same login id already, no other user can login with the same login
id anymore until some of them logout or close their browser.

This is a very common problems for any commercial web application. Is
there a design pattern or existing framework to deal with this problem?

Ningjun

maybe I don't understand your problem but solution to this is simple
if I understand correctly.
why don't you log ip from with user when he/She loggs in and do not
allow any other same user login from elsewhere (other ip or limit to
some sub-class like 192.168.3.*) while the user is on website?

Carra