VB.NET client server question.

[sunama]

I've created a client and server application.

The client - server are working able successfully passing messages to/from one another, when both are run on the same PC.

The Server will be run in my house, on a computer which is on a network of 2 PCs (MainPC and BedroomPC).

lets say for example,
that the ip address of my server = 1.2.3.4
the machine name of my server = MainPC
the port number of my server = 8888

When the client and server are running on the same PC, the following code works nicely:

clientSocket = New TcpClient()
clientSocket.Connect("MainPC", 8888)
Dim serverStream As NetworkStream
serverStream = clientSocket.GetStream()
Dim messageToSend As String = "blah"
Dim outStream As Byte() = System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(messageToSend)
serverStream.Write(outStream, 0, outStream.Length)
serverStream.Flush()

Now, I am going to run the client on a different PC, over the internet.
So, I want to connect the client, to the server which is already running. The server details are:

that the ip address of my server = 1.2.3.4
the machine name of my server = MainPC
the port number of my server = 8888



How would I connect the client to the above server, bearing in mind that I have to enter the ip address, machine name and port in the following code:

clientSocket = New TcpClient()
clientSocket.Connect("MainPC", 8888)

How can I insert the ip address of MainPC, into the statements above, bearing in mind that the server is running on only 1 computer ("MainPC") on my network ?

Thanks.

 

[Pho]

Rather than use clientSocket.Connect("MainPC", 8888) you should just be able to use your internet IP address (see http://whatismyip.com) or use a dynamic hostname service such as http://no-ip.org or http://dyndns.com so that if you have a dynamic IP it will always get updated to the right one.

Using a dynamic IP service you could just use say:
clientSocket.Connect("sunama.no-ip.org", 8888)

Make sure you forward port 8888 on your router to your server too.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.net.sockets.tcpclient.connect.aspx

 

[sunama]

Rather than use clientSocket.Connect("MainPC", 8888) you should just be able to use your internet IP address (see http://whatismyip.com) or use a dynamic hostname service such as http://no-ip.org or http://dyndns.com so that if you have a dynamic IP it will always get updated to the right one.

Using a dynamic IP service you could just use say:
clientSocket.Connect("sunama.no-ip.org", 8888)

Make sure you forward port 888 on your router to your server too.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.net.sockets.tcpclient.connect.aspx

I understand this. And this would not be a problem if I were running only 1 PC on my network. However, I am running 2 PCs and it is the "MainPC" which the client needs to connect to. How do I prevent it making an attempt to connect to the other PC? And how do I ensure that the client request goes straight to "MainPC" and not "BedroomPC"?

 

[tntcoder]

You would configure port forwarding on your router. One port on your external IP address is mapped to one port on a specified internal IP address.

So in your router you would forward port 8888 TCP to the correct PC.

 

[Pho]

Because let's say sunama.no-ip.org is automatically updated to your Internet IP address (i.e. 88.77.66.55). Anyone trying to connect to sunama.no-ip.org or the Internet IP address will first hit your router. You then need to tell your router to forward traffic on port 8888 to your server's local network IP address, i.e. 192.168.0.59.

It's up to your router to decide where traffic on port 8888 actually ends up.


edit: beat .

 

[sunama]

Now I understand.

Thank you gents for your help.