[Cu-wireless] write a server-free chat application!

[Susan Potter]

Hi guys,

Sorry I've not been particapting in the meetings for a few months.  
Currently working on a Chicago contract, so only in Champaign on some 
weekends to catch up with mail!:(

This thread caught my eye, mostly because I can actually contribute a well 
informed 2 cents here (at least with respect to the registry server(s) - 
clustering could be possible with JMS, but one step at a time).  The 
discovery process you are describing here is exactly where JINI (yes, that 
is pronounced "genie") fits into the equation in the Java Server world.  
Three years ago I was working on a very similar problem (the technical 
basics were the exact same), except applied to Business-to-Business auction 
markets (mostly energy trading networks, like the good old Enron we have all 
grown to love over the last 10 months - but I'll try not to brag about that 
one too much).  It was a clever ploy by the founder of the company to get 
funding ("ebay + napster = money" read his email subject to the Venture 
Capitalists).  I worked using JINI to prototype the registry server, but at 
the time JINI was very immature technology, I believe the reference 
implementation could have still been in beta release, so at the time we 
decided to build our own server framework components from the ground up (a 
chellenging technical exercise but not so great when there's not enough 
money in the bank:).  But I remember from reading the specifications then 
and even the little amount of the reference implementation API that we did 
use in the prototype, that this was VERY powerful and VERY flexible 
(although, of course, a little slow being JDK 1.2beta at the time....but now 
it's really hardly an issue, especially with JDK 1.4.1).

If you want to individually read up on JINI visit:
http://wwws.sun.com/software/jini/

That's just my two cents.  Thanks,
Susan
---------------
Susan Potter/Senior Software Engineer
@work: su at bungii.com
@home: su_potter at hotmail.com

>From: stephane at shimaore.net
>To: niteshad at whopper.de
>CC: cu-wireless at lists.groogroo.com
>Subject: Re: [Cu-wireless] write a server-free chat application!
>Date: Thu, 24 Oct 2002 18:42:50 -0500 (CDT)
>
>Hi,
>
> > I don't have a clear concept of how IM works (i.e. does it use a central
> > server, like Napster did?)
>
>The discovery process is generally centralized; by "discovery" I mean the
>process of:
>  - registering a username
>  - announcing your presence
>  - finding other usernames (directory)
>  - finding other usernames' presence
>  [ probably others ]
>
>After that there's generally one of two schemes:
>  - centralized chat function: what almost everybody does today AFAIK
>    (including IRC); has the nice advantage of bypassing NAT.
>  - peer-to-peer; NetMeeting's chat allows for that (using H.323) -- but
>    still the directory function is centralized (DNS or MS' ILS) (and no
>    presence, accessorily).
>
>Note that good old Un*x' "talk" also has most of the features Dave asked
>for (peer-to-peer), but the "discovery" process again is the lacking
>point.
>
> > As far as security goes, I'm in favor of using as strong an encryption
> > scheme as we can get, and using it as often as possible.
>
>Multicast (either IP or application-level) and encryption don't work well
>together (key distribution issues), so the "discovery" part is going to be
>a tough one if it has to be really distributed. Even peer-to-peer data
>networks currently rely on a few "seed" servers; I'd be interested to find
>out whether some research has been done in terms of distributed, rootless
>directories. (One can turn the problem around using for example dynamic
>DNS or a variation thereof, but this is just displacing the problem.) --
>However the application's requirements may not be that strong.
>
>OK, gotta leave for the CUW meeting now! :=)
>S.
>
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