WCF (or alternative) Configuring the controller on computers over the Internet

Question

We have a .net monitoring service that runs on multiple PCs installed throughout the UK at customer locations. We need to be able to communicate with these PCs from a central web application in order to send them separate commands and request data from them.

All of these PCs are connected to the Internet, but can be located behind firewalls. Since these PCs may not contact directly with the URL, we need to somehow connect these “workers” to the centralized connector, identify ourselves and then respond to commands from the server.

We see WCF P2P as a solution, but you have a few problems about this (can you target an individual worker with this and we will have problems with NAT and firewalls). We also considered the use of XMPP as a protocol for communication.

Is there a P2P way forward, or is there a better solution (WCF or otherwise).

thanks

Answer 1

I suggest using netPeerTcpBinding .

There is a good article here.