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How to Make Your Application Router-Proof
How to write an application that uses UDP without requiring your users to fiddle with their routers
Issue: 2.3 (December/January 2003)
Author: Aaron Ballman
Author Bio: Aaron is the local REAL Software networking guru. In his spare time, he likes to take over small nations using a spork.
Article Description: No description available.
Article Length (in bytes): 8,525
Starting Page Number: 22
RBD Number: 2310
Resource File(s): None
Related Link(s): None
Known Limitations: None
Excerpt of article text...
Background on Routers A router is a device that allows you to have multiple machines sharing one connection to the Internet. Basically, a router sits between all the computers on your Local Area Network ( LAN), and delegates where all the incoming network traffic should go.
When a router receives an incoming packet, it needs to determine what computer that packet should go to. So it looks at information in the packet (such as destination port and the protocol of the packet) and decides where to send it. If there are incoming TCP connections or incoming UDP packets, then the router needs to be set up correctly or this information is dropped at the router before any computer ever gets the chance to use it.
As a programmer, routers can be a large problem if your application relies on listening to TCPSockets, or if your application expects to receive UDP packets. This is due to the fact that your end-user must know how to set their router up properly. Sometimes this setup is unavoidable (as in the case of a listening TCPSocket), but there are some tricks you can do so that your users don't have to mess around with their router settings.
...End of Excerpt. Please purchase the magazine to read the full article.
Article copyrighted by REALbasic Developer magazine. All rights reserved.
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