Nice dude
I always like reading that kind of threads. Sounds cutting edge, when it's not really that speacial. Do you know what I hate about that kind of systems as yours, they abuse something that I can't stop. For fuck' sake, why the hell my IE says it's IE and additionally it says OS, version and a bunch of shitz I can't stop. In order to do that kind of manipulation (stop the data flow) I have to bury myself in a shitload of docs and read thru tons of articles and whitepapers to find 10 lines of information explaining the whole thing and where should I look to change details (ie e replace the strings saying "Internet Explorer" and "6.0"). Of course
I do stats myself, I mean I collect some of the information as you (most of the time not so detailed as in your case, but who knows, I may start some day).
What I would suggest (in hardcore mode data collecting) is to perform a quick scan on the client's machine - some port probing and additionally version identification on network services running on the box. There're many internal AND filetered protocols that are used for software packages to communicate with each other, as there're many protocols that are somehow related to hardware installed on the machine (again communication/control tools). The trick is to use a separate client to do the job (ie, get a queue of hosts to scan and scan them (as long as it's legal of course)).
I'm sorry, I just had to speak with somebody about that kind of thins
The need burns my soul... I hope we continue the conversation... GG/MML get a Hi-Tech forum guys!
Best wishes,
Andrew