MSMQ multicast (PGM) binding to wrong network interface - networking

Has anyone had any luck getting MSMQ multicast (PGM) to bind to a specific network interface using the MulticastBindIP registry setting?
MSMQ Multicast (PGM) always seems to bind to the first interface listed by ipconfig. In my case, I have VMware installed, so I have two virtual network interfaces (VMnet8 and VMnet1) as well as my network card. It isn't useful to have MSMQ send PGM packets to the VMware virtual interfaces.
I have attempted to use the MulticastBindIP registry setting (of course, restarting MSMQ after the change), but this does not seem to make any difference. For example, the IP address of my "Local Area Connection" is 172.18.224.245, so I set the following registry key value:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSMQ\Parameters]
"MulticastBindIP"=dword:ac12e0f5
The DWORD is stored with most significant bytes first. However, using wireshark, I can see that the PGM packets are not getting sent to this interface (but still sent to the first interface listed by ipconfig).
The documentation could be wrong, so I also tried variations such as: least significant bytes first and even using a (dot-delimited IPv4-style) string value. Nothing seems to make any difference. The only way I can get MSMQ multicast to bind to the correct interface is to disable all virtual interfaces. This isn't a workable solution.

If anyone is interested, "MulticastBindIP was introduced for Windows 2003 Server and not back-ported to Windows XP". Thanks to John Breakwell's help. See this Microsoft newsgroup discussion for more details.
The only solution I've found on Windows XP is to disable all interfaces except the "Local Area Connection". When you re-start the MSMQ windows service it will bind to the correct network interface (because it's the only one available). I suspect it's not that common to have multiple network cards in a machine running WinXP, but it is common to have VMware or VirtualBox virtual interfaces that expose this issue with MSMQ binding.
FYI, For more recent operating systems, where the MulticastBindIP registry setting is supported, there is some debate on whether the value is a DWORD or REG_SZ.

Related

Assigning NICs to a XenProject VM

I wish to install a VM on my Xen Project machine that will run a Zentyal Firewall. My machine has three networks cards: one integrated, and two discreet, similar cards (they have the same Realtek chip, but are from different manufacturers). For the firewall to work optimally, what I want to do is assign and dedicate the two discreet NICs to my firewall VM, and use the integrated card for Dom0 and other VMs. I have been able to do similar things with other virtualisation software in the past, but have not been able to find a way to do it with Xen Project.
This page provides many useful configurations, but I don't think any of them match what I want to do. Is this at all possible, or must I give up hope of virtualising my firewall computer?
I think the best way to solve this would be using PCI passthrough in Xen. What this means is that you can leave 1 of your NICs attached to the dom0 (which can then be bridged to allow the other VMs to connect through the same interface - look at one of the Xen articles on network configuration for some examples of how to set this up, it'll be the same as if you only had a single NIC) and allow the firewall VM full control over the other two NICs.
The process for this is somewhat involved and can vary by distribution so I would advise you check the first article I linked but I will describe the basic process.
Check the PCI addresses of the two network cards you want to pass through using lspci. The lines of output for your cards will look something like the following (although the details will be very different the structure will be the same):
00:19.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82579LM Gigabit Network Connection (rev 04)
00:19.1 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82579LM Gigabit Network Connection (rev 04)
Make a note of the first column (00:19.0 and 00:19.1 in this example). Add this to the config for your firewall VM in the following format:
pci=['00:19.0','00:19.1']
On its own this will cause the VM to fail to boot as it will be unable to pass through the devices. In order for the devices to be passed through they will need to be bound to the pciback driver on dom0 with a command like:
xl pci-assignable-add 00:19.0
xl pci-assignable-add 00:19.1
This may not be possible in all situations but there are other methods if it is not. I strongly advise you to read the article I mentioned before to fully understand what the best way to do this is in your case.

Work with multiple NICs/networks in Windows

I'm searching for a solution to work on a Windows machine with multiple NICs/networks. While working within the network of a customer I tend to get a lot of problems. I need an internet connection for several things like git/sourcesafe/development system etc. but clients often can't offer internet access. So the solution is to use a mobilephone to connect to the internet and ethernet to access the client network/database.
Windows seems to be pretty random here. Sometimes everything works, some mintues later it trys to access the internet over the clients gataway or access the database via the internet. So I end up deactivting/activating NIC's all day long.
Is there some easy way to use the ethernet connection only to access the clients network and the mobile for everything else?
From what you described I think this might help: turn off DHCP for the interface that connects to your customers network and set a static address for that (without a gateway). Then configure your other interface to use DHCP. This should set ONE default gateway (your phone) and all traffic will run through it, except endpoints in your customer's net.
BTW: You can only have one default gateway at a time, of course, but in your case the gateway that was set the latest won, so to speak.

Udp multicast group in Windows Store and Windows Desktop apps

I'm try to build up the communication between a Windows desktop app and a group of Windows Store and/or Windows Store apps, using UDP multicast groups.
A communication module exists in all applications, but there is a problem: Desktop and Phone apps use classes from System.Net namespace, and the Store app uses classes from the Windows.Networking namespace.
It seems that the Store app doesn't receive any datagram, since the handler for the datagram received is never called (looking to Wireshark tracing, I found that datagrams for the specified multicast group and the specified port arrive from a machine to another, so there isn't a network problem).
It seems that classes from the two namespaces are incompatible, so I should use the same namespaces in all applications, but seems that the use of System.net in Windows Store apps is discouraged, or impossible. Also, it seems that the use of Windows.Networking in Windows Desktop apps is impossible.
Am I wrong? Any ideas?
You're wrong. A UDP datagram sent by any piece of software should be receivable by any other piece of software as long as both have functional IP stacks underneath. The Internet proves this every second.

AIR/Flash Player connect to another machine without cirrus/stratus

Is it possible to connect to a Air app running on another machine via socket(assuming we know ip) or some other mechanism(which doesnt use Cirrus/stratus)? If it is can someone please help me on how?
Let me rephrase question, I dont want to connect to a server over socket. I would like to know if it is possible to connect from one AIR app on machine A to connect to another AIR app on machine B via sockets without cirrus. I'm not asking for someone else to do my work, I couldnt find any documentation or possibility of the above thing. My conclusion now is that it is not possible, but I would just like it to be verified by other people(experts).
Absolutely, as3 supports sockets. http://www.ultrashock.com/forum/viewthread/81676/
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/FlashPlatform/reference/actionscript/3/flash/net/Socket.html?filter_flash=cs5&filter_flashplayer=10.2&filter_air=2.6
There are two ways to do it. One AIR app can act as a server by creating a ServerSocket object while the other app connects to this with the Socket class. The other way is to use the DatagramSocket class.
In both cases, the trick is that because of network access translation, the IP address to use is not always easily discoverable unless at least one of the computers has a static IP. If both computers are on the same network subnet you can look up the IP address needed to reach one computer from the other manually. Otherwise, the IP one computer must use to reach the other won't be the same IP that the computer sees for itself. This matchmaking is the service that stratus/cirrus provides.
See http://www.brynosaurus.com/pub/net/p2pnat/ for a description of the problem.

TCP and UDP implementation of virtual terminal access

Im trying to understand the virtual terminal access. I was wondering if anyone know any sources for the Virtual Terminal Access protocol. And other sources like ftp, http, and remote procedure calls.
The RFC Sourcebook...
I'm not sure about the 'Virtual Terminal Access Protocol' though. That's a new one to me. Usually, if you're looking to communicate with a terminal you have to know the model of the specific terminal because there are so many different terminal specifications.
The RFC sourcebook, at the least, will give you a great resource to help implement FTP, HTTP,and RPC.
If you want to see a great example of a virtual terminal check out PuTTY
I suspect you meant the Virtual Terminal Protocol that was part of the ISO protocol stack. It was never widely deployed. The logical Internet equivalent was telnet, which, while extremely useful in its day, was insecure and has since been replaced by ssh.

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