client-to-client communication via SOAP

[Bruce]

I am in the intial stage of architecting and building an application in
which each client running the application will occasionally send a set of
binary files to other "peers" running the same application. The
applications will be managed centrally via a server which will handle
registration and authorization/authentication. The cient app will be a
..NET Windows Forms application, and the server will be accessed via a .NET
web service.

This is my first significant experience with web services. It is clear to
me how to wire the clients to access the server and trade information and
files with the server. My question is how to enable clients to send objects
directly between one another? Can .NET web services be utilized for this
kind of peer-to-peer communication?

As I understand it, there is a potential problem with the use of web
services for peer-to-peer communication: Each client would have to have a
..asmx web service running on IIS. But many (if not most) clients will not
have IIS available for security reasons. Perhaps I'm asking a niave
question here, but can SOAP messages be exchanged between clients(preferable
via http to help overcome firewall challenges) without utilizing IIS on the
clients?

Finally, if anyone can recommend a good article on peer-to-peer
communication between clients (without the use of IIS on the clients) I
would appreciate that. I prefer samples in C#.

Thanks,
-- Bruce

 

[Delf]

I am in the intial stage of architecting and building an application in
which each client running the application will occasionally send a set of
binary files to other "peers" running the same application. The
applications will be managed centrally via a server which will handle
registration and authorization/authentication. The cient app will be a
..NET Windows Forms application, and the server will be accessed via a .NET
web service.

This is my first significant experience with web services. It is clear to
me how to wire the clients to access the server and trade information and
files with the server. My question is how to enable clients to send objects
directly between one another? Can .NET web services be utilized for this
kind of peer-to-peer communication?

Nice application. It's a sort of KDX

As I understand it, there is a potential problem with the use of web
services for peer-to-peer communication: Each client would have to have a
..asmx web service running on IIS. But many (if not most) clients will not
have IIS available for security reasons. Perhaps I'm asking a niave
question here, but can SOAP messages be exchanged between clients(preferable
via http to help overcome firewall challenges) without utilizing IIS on the
clients?

Why do the clients need an IIS server if they use a WinForm ? The
WinForm only consums the WebService which is on the server, no ?

Finally, if anyone can recommend a good article on peer-to-peer
communication between clients (without the use of IIS on the clients) I
would appreciate that. I prefer samples in C#.

If you find samples, can you post them here ?
Thanks.

 

[Bruce]

The clients indeed consume a web service from the server. But in addition,
they need to be able to pass objects between one another. At any point in
time after authentication from the server, I hope to have the clients pass
objects between one another independent of the server. This later step is
where I need help.

Any recommendations?

-- Bruce

 

[[MSFT]]

Hello Bruce,

For Peer-to-peer communication, I would like recommend TCP, MSMQ or
remoting in .NET instead of web service. Web service is based on
request&response. One client will send a request(message) to the server,
but another client won't recieve it until it also send a request to the
server.

Here is a sample about TCP:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/cpref/html/
frlrfsystemnetsocketstcplistenerclasstopic.asp
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/cpref/html/
frlrfsystemnetsocketstcpclientclasstopic.asp

Here is a sample about remoting:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;Q307739

Hope this help,

Luke