Sockets and broadcasts

[David Kettlewell]

Can anyone help me with using sockets in the Progress 9.1 4GL?

I need to connect to a server process on another computer. That I can do with a dll supplied by the makers of the server if I know the server address. (Socket number of server can be set). My difficulty is to locate the IP address in a DHCP environment - ie, the IP address can change from day to day.

Instructions for locating a running server go like this:

Open a UDP socket.
Broadcast this string "1" to port 52256
and each server will reply with it's location.

Obviously someone knows how to do it in some language as I have seen it work. But how?

 

[Chris Kelleher]

Wouldn't it just be possible to address the server by machine name, instead of using the IP address? This should work.

 

[David Kettlewell]

Chris,

Thanks for the suggestion. It works fine. I can connect to the server using a socket and read the IP address.

I could probably, if I wanted to put in lots more time do all the communication via the socket opened this way, but the software makers have generously made a "COM Object" available, and this handles all the communication very neatly. I only need use the socket to locate the IP address. No messing with Memptrs or anything.

Thanks again,

David.