Intranet Work - Help!

[PeterPigmy]

Here's a question guys!

I have never worked with any application which comminicates with "the outside world".

I've been tasked with investigating a project which will do a load of data collecting and analysis (no problem so far) and then "broadcast" some of it across an "intranet" made up of about 40 computers with the instructions that I should use the TCP/IP protocol.

Now i'm guessing that Winsock will be involved here, but before I launch myself into massive research what i'm really looking for is a little help on the PROCEDURES involved.

The data being "broadcast" can be converted to any necessary format.

The problem is that different computers on the Intranet will want/need slightly different parts of the data. (Is any of this making sense).

Here's an analogy...

The "host" computer will be monitoring the company coffee machines and recording every cup of coffee bought and by whom.

Then each computer on the Intranet will enquire as to what it's "owner" has purchased through the day.

It will be a "real-time" application and data will be requested around every 5-10 seconds by the "slave" machines.

Can someone give me an idea of where to start on this. I don't want to waste a load of time going down completely the wrong road.

Where should I be looking guys!!!!

Thanx in advance.


Pigmy


ps. I hope this made at least SOME sense to somebody!!!!

[wpearsall]

ok,,

im not certain i get what you mean, but i will give it a shot.

first of all: with tcp / ip "broadcasting", [im sure], you cant just broadcast data, and hope it will be picked up by some machine.

first you will need to create the connections.

Look into creating a server

once each machine is connected, you can send data, thru those connections.

IE:

for each ctl in me.controls
if typeof ctl is winsock then
winsock.senddata("STUFF TO SEND")
end if
next ctl

but then you will need to create a client too, to get the data


http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en...asp?frame=true

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en...asp?frame=true


those two pages should help you alot [second one more so]

[PeterPigmy]

Thanx,

I had looked through MSDN and come to the conclusion that a "broadcast" was not going to work. I'm just gonna have to "dive in" then and get to know winsock etc, which can't hurt I suppose.

Thanx for the reply, I appreciate it.

If anyone else has any thoughts, feel free!!!!!

Thanx again

Pigmy

[sagey]

are you just talking about displaying data on the intranet?

is that what you mean by broadcasting?

if so use asp

[PeterPigmy]

Originally posted by sagey
are you just talking about displaying data on the intranet?

That is EXACTLY what I mean. The "other" computers on the intranet will do virtually no processing. There's is a "display only" role. The "host" machine will have done all the hard work.

I'm really showing my ignorance here...

How does ASP work then??? (Feels guilty for even asking this!)

Pigmy

[TheSarlacc]

so basically one computer will be a "server" and the others will be the "clients" that have to connect to the "server"?

if this is the case, then TCP/IP via winsock is simple.
ive got some code on my machine that can help you with what u want to do. when i get home, ill find it and post it for u.

[radum]

i would suggest you to keep it as simple as possible: instead of 'pushing' data to the client computers, make the client machines pull the data from the coffee server. it would be a nightmare to poke around and figure out which client logged in, what are the new clients that have to be registered and so on. and why complicating the whole stuff with low-level winsock, when you can have a web server with a few asp pages, and a regular browser interface. this way you only have to pull from the database the information, format it in html and send it over whenever requested. 90% of the job is done.

asp is somehow a hybrid between html code and visual basic (or java) script. imagine that you write a server application that generates the html code on-the-fly, and you dont even have to be super-experienced for that.

[PeterPigmy]

Originally posted by TheSarlacc
so basically one computer will be a "server" and the others will be the "clients" that have to connect to the "server"?

if this is the case, then TCP/IP via winsock is simple.
ive got some code on my machine that can help you with what u want to do. when i get home, ill find it and post it for u.

Thank you. I really appreciate this!


Pigmy

[PeterPigmy]

Originally posted by radum
i would suggest you to keep it as simple as possible: instead of 'pushing' data to the client computers, make the client machines pull the data from the coffee server. it would be a nightmare to poke around and figure out which client logged in, what are the new clients that have to be registered and so on. and why complicating the whole stuff with low-level winsock, when you can have a web server with a few asp pages, and a regular browser interface. this way you only have to pull from the database the information, format it in html and send it over whenever requested. 90% of the job is done.

asp is somehow a hybrid between html code and visual basic (or java) script. imagine that you write a server application that generates the html code on-the-fly, and you dont even have to be super-experienced for that.

Radum, thanx.

I have so little experience of anything other than Vb6 and not communicating with anything "outside" that i'm starting to feel a bit inadequate!

I'll certainly investigate your suggestion and thanx for the input!


Pigmy

[radum]

here's your chance to get started. it's really not that difficult.