Communicating between PCs

[JohnKelly]

I have a main application running on VB6. This has mutiple RS232 inputs which it processes and displays graphically and numerically to the user. I need to create slave display(s) showing limited information on other PC(s) located on the network. What is the best way to communicate between the computers. I will not know in advance what the TCP/IP address of the other PCs are as these are allocated dynamically on power up.

Is there an easy way to simply send out globally the data and the other PCs listen for this data when they power up.

Any help would be gratefully received.

Look into multicasting packets on the network. Then write a client that listens for those packets. When it finds one, it reads the data and then displays the information in it.

[JohnKelly]

Dukane

Thanks for the reply. I am using VB6 under Win XP Pro on a Windows network. All the references I can find refer to using VB.NET. Can you provide any other clues as to how I can setup multicasting with VB6.

Thank you.

Look into multicasting packets on the network. Then write a client that listens for those packets. When it finds one, it reads the data and then displays the information in it.

Unfortunately I don't know how to implement a solution like that. It was merely an idea. I use VB.NET myself. You should consider upgrading. There are free Express editions on Microsoft's website.

[JohnKelly]

Thanks for the reply. The problem I face is that the .NET code is easily decompilable and hence if you want to pass on an .EXE it is very difficult to protect your development without spending a small fortune on an obfuscator.

Unfortunately I don't know how to implement a solution like that. It was merely an idea. I use VB.NET myself. You should consider upgrading. There are free Express editions on Microsoft's website.

[Sentax]

I had to learn myself how to communicate via TCP a while back. I visited www.vbip.com and read their articles and downloaded their vb6 sockets code. They have a great test bench application that you can test the connection settings/etc before you even dive into code. You should check that out and read up on TCP connections and also UDP (connectionless, which you can broadcast data over a network and any number of clients listening can get the data).

I've done both with ease now. Once you figure out how it works then its really fun to program over TCP and start to forget about rs232 connections all together except for the old equipment out there that needs it still.

Scott