I have a small 'phone home' program for my program that syncs data with our
online reservation system... I simply send an xml file to one of my ftp
folders. It was meant as an alarm for our customers so they would know if
our program had not synced in a while.. it only sends every 15 minutes....
because they were syncing anyway.... Then I wrote a small program that
grabbed the xml files and imported them into a small program on my desktop
for analysis.. it's also part of my copy protection so people can't use the
software at multiple stores.

But I only do this with my sync software because it's already sending out
xml files for the online sync.
If people are downloading from your web page and installing updated software
I think you have a perfect right to know about it. Plus it's good to have
records for your customers. However, it might be better for your program to
do it instead of the installer (or updater).

I haven't done this yet, but I'm thinking that I could detect the new
version and send myself a small file.. but maybe ask the customer if it's
OK.. like just after they've updated off of the internet.

Ray
VMT