Remoting : Can a Server Control Clients ?

sendi_t34 posted on Tuesday, October 10, 2006

I am fairly new to this remoting, I want to build an application where I might have more than 500 clients

q1.) Can remoting handle this in real time ?
q2.)  I would also need to have server in full control, meaning has to keep track of all client and send selective data in to each client (push from the server.)
q3.)Also Server must be able to kill, restrick and enhance client with specific messages with out shuting down the client.

possibel ? anybody did this ? please post your expert advise.

Any like to sample code?

TIA
Sendi

RockfordLhotka replied on Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Certainly this is outside the scope of anything CSLA handles. CSLA uses Remoting (or any other network protocol) to allow the client to contact the server.

But looking at the issue from a broader perspective, the general answer is "yes", but you'll have to do a lot of work and live with some serious restrictions.

Remoting, like web services, is a connectionless protocol. No TCP socket connection is maintained between client and server. The exception to this is that you can buy 3rd party Remoting channels that DO maintain a bi-directional TCP socket connection.

If you are just starting your project, I'd suggest you look at WCF (.NET 3.0), because it includes a bi-directional channel.

Why is this important? Because your typical client doesn't have a routable IP address. It is relatively uncommon to be in a situation where the server can "ping" the client. And if the server can't extablish a TCP socket to the client, then the server can't initiate communication. The typical solution is to have the client establish and maintain a connection: which means using a bi-directional TCP socket.

So yes, Remoting can do this with a 3rd party channel. WCF does it with a channel provided by Microsoft.

Either way, you will need to write your own protocols and code to handle your q2 and q3.

sendi_t34 replied on Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Thanks Rocky for your reply,

Do you know if wcf is freeware technology or like MSMQ ?

Sorry about those spellings

Thanks