Hello. I am working on an application which I want to give to several people to beta test. I am hoping they can avoid giving it out, but I can't be too sure. I want to add some complex protection against leaking.

I already know how to collect various bits of data from the user's machine in order to verify it is them using it, as well as require a username and password (Which would be simple to bypass, unlike hardware information). What I plan to do is use a diagnostics tool to get the information then set that up on a server.

My question is: How can I make an application check a web server (Possibly a database on a web server) to see if the information is there. Say I have the username and password "Bob" and "BobPass" on my server in some fashion. I want the application to prompt for the U/P (Simple, dont need a guide on that) then run those variables to the server and see if they are in the 'list' of valid people. If it is on the server, it allows use. If not, it doesn't allow use.

If this would be better suited in another language, that's fine as well. (I'm most proficient with VB and C# though)

Any help would be appreciated. Thank you for your time.