re: Announcing the Microsoft Live Labs Relay Service

davidwor — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 20:54:43 GMT

Hi Ray,

I think it would be great if you explored building a backup application that works through the relay. I think this is a very natural application of the technology. But keep in mind that the current relay service is a technology preview and may go down at various times for maintenance, etc. We may also make changes in the future that will require that you update your application. The upshot is that you shouldn’t build anything that relies on it at this point. But if you decide to try this out, I’d love to get your feedback about the service.

As for the choice to require managed code, one of the key benefits we’re showing with the relay service is the fact that the client functionality can be encapsulated using a standard Windows Communication Foundation channel. This means you can often update your application to use it without any code changes (you just need to update your application config).

And I’m a big believer in how much easier it is to build services using WinFx (I’ve been working on it for a number of years so perhaps I’m biased :-) ). That being said, do you have a particular scenario in mind that requires the use of unmanaged code? If so, I’d love to hear more about it.

I hope that helps.

David

re: Announcing the Microsoft Live Labs Relay Service

raymanzy — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 20:52:21 GMT

This is a great service. I'd use it in a heartbeat, but a few things concern me:

What is the oost of this service? Will it be free? The reason I ask is because I'd love to port my backup app to use this service to get around the firewalls, but I'm guessing you don't want me to shove 450 GB of data thru your service.

Why does the service require me to use WinFX? Why even require managed code? Something that works with plain old sockets would work for much broader situations.

Thanks,
Ray