How does MSN Mesenger and AOL IM work exactly

O.K. here is what i need. I am writing a program it is called Auctioneer it is a program that makes selling and buying on auctions a ton easier but i want a feature that i do not know how to do in .net i want to be able to send instant messages to other people who have my program running and i want to be able to tell when my "buddies" are online. stuff like that. basically it is going to be and extra feature that lets you IM people from the Auctioneer software. BUT!!! I do not know how to do it with VB .Net actually i do not know how to do it period. But i want it! I need to know how to do this if anyone could help me out! Thanks a lot!

Oh! ! more thing i do not have a server so is ther a way to get around that? Could it be done by using each user as "a tye of server" kinda like napster i guess.

Basically what it comes down to is i want it to be able to send a message to a user without having to know a big long ip address each time because everytime i dial up to the net my ip address changes. i was thinking maybe the user would log in at the auctioneer site and somehow when they logged in their current ip address would be saved (with their id) and then users could loo through a long list of names for people then click the name and the name would just be a front to hide the actual ip address. How can i do this in vb .net

Here is some idea of how im works.

There is a central server.
All clients log into that main server
The server detects the new client and searches for othe clients that have that one for a buddy.
then the server sends a string message to all those clients with that buddy telling the client exe that he is logged on. Then the client of course shows he is online.
Same thing for sending a message. The message goes to the server. The server looks through all the logged on people looking for the connection pointing to the specifies buddy. Then sends it to that buddy.


As far as having a changing ip....even those p2p programs need a central server with a static ip. If you dont have a static ip, either

a) Get one.
b) goto http://www.dyndns.org and get a dynamic dns..then people can access your server with B2E.dyndns.org..or whatever.

Hey Cander, What exactly is http://www.dyndns.org <---that site do they give you space on their server or something? say i used the things they offer what would i need to set up the IM program just a simple server app. and then add the client side to my program that is being distributed? will the server application be running all the time?

Just let me know what exactly i would need to have. THANKS!

O.K. if i had a broadband connection to the internet then does my IP address stay the same(I think it does but i am just checking), and if so is it the same way with the satelite connections? and if so... could i use my home PC as the server computer and just let the server side application run all the time?

Something has been itching me to ask. If napster needed a central server to host all the ip addresses then how did that guy go about getting one? Was he not in college? Could you explain how exactly he went about creating napster?

Thanks for your answers!

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Originally posted by B2E
Hey Cander, What exactly is http://www.dyndns.org <---that site do they give you space on their server or something? say i used the things they offer what would i need to set up the IM program just a simple server app. and then add the client side to my program that is being distributed? will the server application be running all the time?

Just let me know what exactly i would need to have. THANKS!

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no it just hosts the name you choose...ie B2E.dyndns.org

They have software you can download in which everytime you connect to the internet, their software updates the ip address B2E.dyndns.org will point to with whatever your ip is. So when someone types B2E.duyndns.org in their browser, it routes to your computer.

Quote:

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Originally posted by B2E
O.K. if i had a broadband connection to the internet then does my IP address stay the same(I think it does but i am just checking), and if so is it the same way with the satelite connections? and if so... could i use my home PC as the server computer and just let the server side application run all the time?

Something has been itching me to ask. If napster needed a central server to host all the ip addresses then how did that guy go about getting one? Was he not in college? Could you explain how exactly he went about creating napster?

Thanks for your answers!

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Ask your ISP. Som give dynamic ips..some dont.

As far as how to get one. Like i said, some isp's give you one..usually only with broadband..plus the Napster guy probably had his own T-1 shared or full from either a company, or he had the money, or whatever.

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Same thing for sending a message. The message goes to the server.

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I would think this a waste of server resources. What I would do is log the IP addresses as people log on to the server, then when buddies are on, send the clients the IP addresses of their buddies so that info is with the client. Then the client contacts the other client directly when sending messages. The server should send out a ping type packet or two to all online people to verify they are still online every now and then. After the pings, it will update all the clients as to the status of all their buddies. Routing all messages through a server would be more secure, but if you want to not use up so much bandwidth and resources on the server end, I would go directly from client to client for messages.

redirecting those messages via server doesnt take very much resources and be it known that more than likely some users would not want their ip address being broadcast around like that..

Bump :D