Why HTTPChannel is good over TCPChannel.

  • Thread starter Thread starter archana
  • Start date Start date
A

archana

Hi all,

I am confuse at selecting httpchannel and tcpchannel. I read on MSDN
that ' HttpChannel is a good channel to start with because in some
scenarios it can be used through firewalls without opening a port;

Can anyone tell what exactly it means?. As for communication there has
to be port open to send data, i am not getting how through firewall
httpchannel work?.

Please correct me if i am wrong in any concept.

Thanks in advance.
 
As everybody uses the world wide web almost everywhere there is always a
very good chance that HTTP communication over port 80 (or sometimes 8080)
will be enabled on most firewalls to allow users behind the firewall to use
their internet browsers.
I think the MSDN article was saying that this means that if you use a
HTTPChannel there is less chance you will have firewall issues than you
would have with TCPChannels.

Furthermore according to .NET Remoting guru, Ingo Rammer the HTTPChannel is
more scaleable as he states here:
http://www.thinktecture.com/resourcearchive/net-remoting-faq/remotingusecases
 
archana said:
Hi all,

I am confuse at selecting httpchannel and tcpchannel. I read on MSDN
that ' HttpChannel is a good channel to start with because in some
scenarios it can be used through firewalls without opening a port;
Click to expand...

Read that as "without opening another port". HTTP (port 80) is often
already open.
 
I am probably in a minority, but I never really agreed with that advise from
MS. First, it assumes you have an IIS server already setup and you have
admin access to it. Second, it is harder to get started and develop because
you have a whole another can of worms to deal with using a remote IIS.
Second, just because port 80 is open for one host does not mean it will be
open for the host you actually need, so your back to opening ports anyway.
Third, http runs ontop of tcp, so it is a slight bit of overhead over just
tcp. IMO, self hosting using tcp is much easier to dev and debug and
understand because you can touch and feel everything that is going on and it
is right on your machine. When you deploy, you can move the service to
production or move to IIS and change channel to http - your app will already
be working and debugged so any issues should just be specific to the network
or channel.

--
William Stacey [C# MVP]


| Hi all,
|
| I am confuse at selecting httpchannel and tcpchannel. I read on MSDN
| that ' HttpChannel is a good channel to start with because in some
| scenarios it can be used through firewalls without opening a port;
|
| Can anyone tell what exactly it means?. As for communication there has
| to be port open to send data, i am not getting how through firewall
| httpchannel work?.
|
| Please correct me if i am wrong in any concept.
|
| Thanks in advance.
|
 
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