Communication between programs

Does anybody know what the best way is to communicate between VB programs in two different networked computers?

I wanted to use DCOM and was reading all about ActiveX DLL components, but using them sounds messier than I like. It seams to me that in order to send a value from Program1 to Program2 using COM I would need to have:
1. Program1 run an in-process ActiveX DLL component
2. Program2 write to that component
3. The component in Program1 trigger an event in Program1 when a Timer in that component checks if Program2 has changed the value of a variable
4. Finally do the code that I want to in Program1 when that event is triggered from the in-process ActiveX DLL

That's getting more messy than I want it to be. Is there something I'm missing about this whole COM/DCOM thing?

Also, once I get past that part, how do I actually call to the component using DCOM through the network? Do I need to use a special file location or something?

On the other hand...

Is there something else that's easier or better to use than COM/DCOM, and ActiveX DLL components?

Please Inform

Thanks!

Bob K.

Anybody...Got any Ideas?
Please Reply Soon, If you do know.

Thanks

______

Bob K.

Hi,
Listen from what i understand u need to send data from one program to another?? Something like a client server thing?? well then wouldn't it be better to use the WinSock control???

cheers
Gaurav

Looks good, but...

How about being able to communicate between programs in the same computer?

Maybe ActiveX is the way to go; I guess I'll just mess around with that.

Thanks for the help!

______

Bob K.

Winsock also can perform a communication between two programs that running at the same PC. Provided you've have set the following parameters:

Winsock1.RemoteHostIP = "127.0.01" and the RemotePort to any value that not conflict with the HTTP, FTP & etc port number.

:)

You can use 127.0.01 to connect but you have to remember
that you need to
install the tcp\ip protocol on your system. ;)

if you want to issue commands and monitor responses between different windows applications, you can write a VB macro. Or you can use shell commands to launch or terminate applications. in fact you can use VB to automate repetitive jobs in any windows application using keyboard shortcuts. Communication between windows apps in VB is very easy and very extensive. Maybe if you posted more info on what you want to do, we can give you more precise help.

I'm learning dcom also, and, as I understand, one advantage of dcom over winsock is that dcom is protocol independant. Where winsock requires tcp/ip, dcom can use any active protocol. If this is an issue, dcom is probably the best choice. It it is not, winsock is much simpler.