[Mono-dev] Keep-alive connection with Remoting?

[Brian Crowell]

Ympostor wrote:
>> Is there a way to use only a connection (with a somewhat keep-alive 
>> behaviour) between the client and the server so as to allow to bypass 
>> any firewalls (that prevent incoming connections, like NAT) that may 
>> affect the client?
> 
> http://www.ingorammer.com/Software/OpenSourceRemoting/BiDirTcpChannel.html

If what you're looking for is bi-directional support over firewalls, you won't 
have many choices. If you're only looking for uni-directional support, the fact 
that remoting closes the connection every now and then won't hurt you.

Bi-directional support in remoting can be tricky, *especially* if you're behind 
a NAT. Remember that every marshalled object has a URI that allows the remoting 
framework to find its way to it. Anything that would allow bi-directional 
remoting has to account for the fact that you can't use the hostname on return.

If you're willing to step up the game a bit, though, it's possible to hijack the 
remoting pipeline right at the end, where it would try to find your client based 
on its URL and send a message across to it. You'd be creating an IChannelSender 
and an IChannelReceiver pair, with maybe one or two other supporting classes.

But, of course, that's a tad advanced. Alternative, simpler methods exist 
outside of remoting, such as just creating your own 
System.Net.Sockets.NetworkStream and piping your data across it.

So... I'd say no, there's no simple way to do it, not without finding an 
already-made product, and I don't know of any.

--Brian