client to client chat

[sati02]

Hi ,

I am new to c# . I want to develop a simple lan messenger which shud be something like "ip

messenger" . where you dont need any seperate server. Please guide me how to acheive this.

It shud be a single exe file which on opening shud list all the connected people (ppl who

opened this exe file on another machine , instead of all those who are connected in lan).

The user shouild be able to select the user he wants to send message .(not to mention shud

ber able to recieve messages)

I have gone through many lan messenger tutorials but din't find one which doesm't use any

server like ip messenger. Thanks in advance :)

[privatevoid]

I think in most cases like this the server is built into the client so that you don't need a seperate server app.

I would look at using UDP broadcasts for finding people who are online and then creating a client server link using TCP between the person initiatinag a chat and the recipient.

[sknake]

It is a little more difficult to determine and maintain a list of who is online without using a central server as all clients to need notify one another when they join or leave the chat. Due to unexpected application or power failures you can't always rely on an "Exit" method for the clients so you will also need to have the clients check one another to ensure they are online.

This can be done easily using the UDP broadcast mechanism privatevoid mentioned. I wanted to point that out so you had it in mind when designing your chat application.