I found some basic examples online about sending messages between computers in Java. However i realized that i only used local ip addresses so i could only send messages to a pc connected in the same network. I rewrote most of the code to make a slightly better version but if i wanted to send a message to a computer in a different network, connected to the internet, would switching the local ip with the receiving computer's public ip address in the code do the trick?
Yes it should work, however it's common place to connect to the Internet via a modem, which in term is the device holding the public IP. Some NAT and likely port forwarding would be needed at the endpoint.
To give a short answer : yes, as long as the receiving computer has a public address and there is no proxies blocking requests.
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First of all, i am a newbie in network programming. Few days ago, i wanted to test a simple java server(simple java echo server). I first tried running it in a university computer and then tried connecting through my laptop which is in a different network without any success. I assumed the network(private university network) didn't allow the connection. Next, i ran the server in my laptop expecting it to be public. I ran the server. I ran it in port 5000. Since the connection was through wifi i also did port forwarding so that my router would know where to forward the incoming requests. I even disabled the firewall just to test. Then there is a tool in the internet which i obtained from some other user in stackoverflow http://www.yougetsignal.com/tools/open-ports/ which can check if a port is open in a machine. I put my ipaddress and port number to see if it is reachable. It continued saying the port is closed. Although i don't have a good idea about networks, i called the ISP and asked if the issue was with the network being a private network and if it is possible to host server in my laptop, she concurred saying it was private network and what i am trying to do is not possible. I wanted to try it in some other computer. I met one good guy in stackoverflow who allowed me to run the server in his computer in taiwan. He disabled his firewall or added an exception, then ran the server. I then ran my client and it could successfully connect to his server. I was ecstatic.
So, my question and curiosity is how does isp blocking incoming connection work? Did the ISP really block the incoming connection to my server or could the problem be with some other things? Is it ever possible to host server in my laptop which is accessible to the world. I am still not content with the answer i got from the ISP which was it was private network so it was blocking..isn't internet basically the collection of private networks connected to each other so isn't everyone in one way or other part of a private network? Please help me with these dilemmas. Appreciate your effort and help a lot! :)
Your house probably has one global external IP assigned to you by your ISP. They will normally block commonly used ports incoming, such as 80 (HTTP), 22 (SSH), 23 (Telnet), 25 (SMTP), and 443 (HTTPS). The majority of the remaining ports should be open for you to use.
As you have one global IP, and multiple devices on your network, you need to tell your router which computer the incoming traffic on a given port needs to go to. This is called Port Forwarding. As you don't control the routers upstream from you at your university, you can't change anything while there. At home you can.
Port Forwarding is explained in depth here.
I suppose it depends on the ISP. I have been able to open ports before with mine, using port forwarding from my router.
As a technician who works for an ISP, I can also say that the tech support generally doesn't have a clue whenbit comes to port blocking or networking in general, they mostly follow a script and ask you if you have turned it off and on again. Maybe check that you are forwarding the port correctly?
I'd like to get a tcp/ip connection working over the internet. I already have two classes, one tcpserver which handles requests and a tcpclient which connects, sends and receives data.
Until now I had it working perfectly on local networks. The usual 127.0.0.1 / localhost and my 192.168.xxx.xxx adresses are not giving any problems.
My question is, what do I have to do to make it work over the internet. As I might want to do some research involving a simple http/server I need this to work.
I doubt its my firewall but maybe its the ISP that blocks this type of connection. Anybody has an idea?
You need to open a port in the router that leads to the one that the server is listening on. You then connect to your public IP. This ip can be found on http://www.visaminip.se/
To provide a service over the internet you need a public IP address. 10.x.x.x and 192.168.x.x are private networks. 127.x.x.x is for the local machine only.
The client can connect to the public IP address of a sepecific port.
The server's modem/router/firewalls allows this port to be open and passes traffic to your server on that port.
I'm developing a game that can be played with computer or versus other players. The GUI is Swing but irrelevant for the matter. My question is : how do I connect with other players in a network?
I am familiar with terms like client / server, sockets etc, and i can write a basic client/server program, but it can only be run from ONE computer. I don't know how to connect to this network from a computer, say, half way across the country.
You are probably setting behind a router which hides your local IP address from the rest of the world (look for NAT for more info on this). Basically, the world only sees your YOUR_ROUTER_IP, your router takes care of carrying all IP packets from the outside world to you and vice versa. You will need to change your router settings so that your computer/server gets the router ip address. This way you can access your server application from anywhere in the world by using simple socket operations.
I hope this helps.
I like to use Kryonet for network connections, it works very well and has really good documentation.
You indicated you know how to use client and server sockets, so I'll just throw out there that you ought to try connecting with "real" ip address instead of localhost (127.0.0.1). Take two machines on your local network, get the IP address of the "server" machine and use that address to connect from the client.
This will work all the way around the world, except for the fact that you are likely behind some Network Address Translation (NAT) firewalls and will likely need to "open" or "forward" the ports you need. If you need more information on NAT, google and serverfault will be pretty helpful.
If your client and server is located on the same machine, then you can use loopback address(ie 127.0.0.1), in LAN you can do with private ip addresses
Private ip address for LAN
CLASS A - 10.x.x.x
CLASS B - 172.16.0.0 - 172.31.255.255
CLASS C - 192.168.0.0 - 192.168.255.255
you can use this for LAN environment
For connecting someone over the internet, you will need Public ip addresses.
Address apart from the private ip in every range are public address.
Now if you have a server which is having a static ip then it wont be a problem for the client to access it anywhere from the world over internet.
But if its over a LAN , and accessing the internet from a gateway, then there will be a NAT, then you will need to set the inbound and outbound traffic rules at the gateway, for letting the client access the server.
I created a small chat program, that works flawlessly when client & server are run on the same computer (and probably network, too).
However, as soon as I try to connect to another computer over the internet, the socket connection simply times out.
Is this because of firewalls / routers, etc?
And how can I connect a ServerSocket & Socket over the internet?
However, as soon as I try to connect to another computer over the internet, the socket connection simply times out. Is this because of firewalls / routers, etc?
Yes, most likely. You're running into the NAT problem: essentially, the same externally visible IP address maps to many internally visible endpoints, and external endpoint doesn't know which internal endpoint to give your socket request to.
The easiest way around this is to have both your clients connect to a third party which both of them can see, and then have the third party mediate the communication. This is how most instant-messaging protocols work, for example.
If you have no way to control a third-party entity like that, an alternative to directly connect two clients is to have both clients open up an agreed-upon port, and then map communications on that port to their own internal endpoint. This provides the missing link that the externally visible endpoint (e.g. your home router) needs to deliver the communication to its intended destination.
If your server is behind a NAT router box (and most home computers are, especially if you use WiFi), then it won't be reachable from the outside unless you set up your router to port forward to that server.
What's the IP of your server computer? If it's 192.168.x.x or 10.x.x.x, then it's a non-routable address and can't be reached from outside.
Assuming with running on the same computer you mean that you tell the client the server is at 127.0.0.1 / localhost, it shouldn't be a problem in your code but because of firewalls or routers. If your server is behind a router performing masquerading (i.e., the server doesn't have a public but private IP address like 192.168.x.y for instance), you have to configure the router to pass a connection from the internet to the computer running the server.
Another reason why it doesn't work might be the way you bind your server to the interface. If you specify 127.0.0.1 there, the server will only listen for requests coming from the same system. If you don't specify an address, it will listen on all interfaces.
Edit Your comment indicates that you indeed have the NAT problem like others said. Configuring your router accordingly is probably the easiest solution.
First, test to see if it really works on a LAN; it sounds like you're just assuming it does.
If it works on your local network, perhaps it's failing because the server lacks a public IP, and is running behind a NAT'ing router.
Java Socket Program did not work for WAN
I have written a TCP IP socket program which works fine in my LAN.
One of my friend is at bangalore He ran the server and I ran the
client with the host name of my friend's IP. In this case my
socket program did not work.
You said that your program is attempting to connect to host 192.168.1.107 port 46216.
192 prefix specifies it is a class C address and is private. Making your program connect to that will force it to remain on the local network searching for that node. You will need to find the IP address of your router (you can use http://whatismyip.org/ to find this out). Then go into your router settings and forward port 46216 to 192.168.1.107 (your node), or even better, your MAC address which is not subject to change (in case your router is running DHCP).
on a side note, it isn't good to hardcode IP addresses. Simply use a textfield to avoid having to redistribute the client when your IP is changed, as it is likely you have a dynamic IP from your ISP.
Your friend running the server is most likely behind either a firewall or NAT. Make sure you are using the external IP address and if necessary port forwarding the packets to the correct IP.
The IP address you gave seems to be a local address, rather than a public internet address. If you are looking for 192.x.x.x, you will not make it out to "the internet", but will be confined behind your router.
WhatIsMyIP is a good way of getting a public IP address, and THAT is the address you should use in your connection. Also, be sure to forward any ports that will be used by your program, because otherwise your router will likely filter the traffic and still create an issue.
You could use an implementation of STUNT or other NAT Traversal protocol.
The ip of computer on thih u deployed your server program is not in your reach.
192.x.x.x ip means (class C) it is for local subnet.
You need to have change your ip address of your net-adapter so that your router could route it through internet.