Searching for a connection

[xirox]

Does anyone have any code let will allow a program to search the internet for another computer using the same program and connect to it.

I have a chat app but you have to enter in the Ip manually so we have to email the ip to each other first.

Or is there another way we can get around this.

Surely I can get the app to search through all ip addresses until it finds a connection

xirox

[alexmac]

One way you could do this is to decide on a port number and ping the different IP addresses to see if they are using your application. However there are a hell of a lot of IP addresses so this is probably not viable!

I think programs like ICQ operate using a central server. For example when you load up your application it contacts the server and sends your Ip address. Other instances of your application can then contact the server to determine other users IP address.

Alex