Vista - How to? peer to peer thru firewalls??

Is there a way to make a peer to peer connection between two clients that are
behind firewalls?? Is it possible for a central open machine to arbitrate
the peer to peer connection, but not be in the loop??
I would think that MSN IM does something like this.

Thanks

There are two ways of doing this that we use, both of which involve
intermediate components.

The first approach is to use a secure router in each firewall. This does
not allow direct connection but allows routing between endpoints. You then,
of course, have the problem of how to route between endpoints. To do this
you would need some form of directory service.

The second apporach is to use a common connection broker. In this case both
components establish and maintain a duplex connection to the connection
broker. The connection broker passes messages through these connections.
Component 1 sends a message to the connection broker - the connection broker
routes the message (through the duplex connection) to the second component.

The second scenario is, in some ways, simpler. However, it isn't really
"peer to peer" since if the CB goes down or is otherwise unreachable you
can't exchange messages. Also the CB must be publically accessible. The
first scenario is more complex, requires some form of federated directory
service, and doesn't deal with peers behind NATS.

"ChrisA" wrote:

> Is there a way to make a peer to peer connection between two clients that are
> behind firewalls?? Is it possible for a central open machine to arbitrate
> the peer to peer connection, but not be in the loop??
> I would think that MSN IM does something like this.
>
> Thanks