Server sending events to multiple clients

[Frank]

Hello.

In the early stages of developing a server application that will be required to send events to multiple client applications that will be running on different PC's.

I'm wondering what the best technology for doing this is. At the moment, I'm looking at MSMQ.

The server PC and client PC's will be running Windows 2000 (most likely in a Workgroup configuration). No, I can't upgrade the PC's to WinXP.

I was thinking of writing the events to a single MSMQ Queue on the server PC, and having the clients monitor this queue, but can see problems with this. Mainly, how to manage multiple clients peeking at the same queue, and when to remove the message.

Would .NET Remoting be a better alternative?

Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance.

Regards,
Frank

[Tom Shelton]

On 2004-04-19, Frank <> wrote:

Hello.

In the early stages of developing a server application that will be required to send events to multiple client applications that will be running on different PC's.

I'm wondering what the best technology for doing this is. At the moment, I'm looking at MSMQ.

The server PC and client PC's will be running Windows 2000 (most likely in a Workgroup configuration). No, I can't upgrade the PC's to WinXP.

I was thinking of writing the events to a single MSMQ Queue on the server PC, and having the clients monitor this queue, but can see problems with this. Mainly, how to manage multiple clients peeking at the same queue, and when to remove the message.

Would .NET Remoting be a better alternative?

Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance.

Regards,
Frank

I would suggest remoting. If you need more information on the subject,
I would suggest Ingo Rammer's book - "Advanced .NET Remoting". It is
well written, and covers most of the in's and out's you need to know to
get your distributed app working - including event handling with
multiple clients :) There are two versions of the book - one for C# and
one for VB.NET, so make sure you get the one that fits your needs the
best.

--
Tom Shelton [MVP]
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[Frank]

I would suggest remoting. If you need more information on the subject,
I would suggest Ingo Rammer's book - "Advanced .NET Remoting". It is
well written, and covers most of the in's and out's you need to know to
get your distributed app working - including event handling with
multiple clients :) There are two versions of the book - one for C# and
one for VB.NET, so make sure you get the one that fits your needs the
best.

I found his website, but in his article ".NET Remoting Use Cases and Best Practices" he states that you should NOT use Remoting for events over a LAN. Am I reading this completely wrong???

Regards,
Frank

[Tom Shelton]

In article <ua**************@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl>, Frank wrote:

I would suggest remoting. If you need more information on the subject,
I would suggest Ingo Rammer's book - "Advanced .NET Remoting". It is
well written, and covers most of the in's and out's you need to know to
get your distributed app working - including event handling with
multiple clients :) There are two versions of the book - one for C# and
one for VB.NET, so make sure you get the one that fits your needs the
best.

I found his website, but in his article ".NET Remoting Use Cases and Best Practices" he states that you should NOT use Remoting for events over a LAN. Am I reading this completely wrong???

Regards,
Frank

Good article... And you are correct. He does seem to suggest that
events over a lan can be bad for scalabilty - and it does make sense
.... In light of that, I'll have to reverse my previous opinion and
suggest that you got the MSMQ route. But, that only works in an NT
based environment - but didn't you say that all your clients were going
to be W2k? If that's the case - MSMQ is not all that difficult. You'll
want to look in the System.Messaging namespace for information...

I still recommend the book. It's been a while ago that I read it - but
I did find it useful at the time ;)

Sorry that I almost steard you wrong...

--
Tom Shelton [MVP]

[Frank]

I found his website, but in his article ".NET Remoting Use Cases and Best Practices" he states that you should NOT use Remoting for events over a LAN. Am I reading this completely wrong???
Good article... And you are correct. He does seem to suggest that
events over a lan can be bad for scalabilty - and it does make sense
... In light of that, I'll have to reverse my previous opinion and
suggest that you got the MSMQ route.

After some more hunting aournd the web, I've decided to go down the MSMQ path.
But, that only works in an NT
based environment - but didn't you say that all your clients were going
to be W2k? If that's the case - MSMQ is not all that difficult. You'll
want to look in the System.Messaging namespace for information...
Yep, all running W2K.
I still recommend the book. It's been a while ago that I read it - but
I did find it useful at the time ;)
I might keep a look out for it anyway.
Sorry that I almost steard you wrong...

I think I can forgive you for that <grin>

Regards,
Frank