Peer Channel Team Blog : Updates/News

Peer Channel Official Protocol Documentation Link

peerchan — Thu, 01 May 2008 07:13:00 GMT

Check it out here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc219453.aspx

How/where to get the Peer channel samples?

peerchan — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 23:33:00 GMT

We ship a total of 6 samples with the Windows SDK, that are included in the WindowsCommunicationFoundation samples zipped file.

Download locations:

1. RTM Runtime: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=10CC340B-F857-4A14-83F5-25634C3BF043&displaylang=en

2. RTM Windows SDK: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=C2B1E300-F358-4523-B479-F53D234CDCCF&displaylang=en

On MSDN:

1. Sample documentation for WCF: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms735119.aspx

2. Peer channel sample + documentation on msdn:

The entire list of samples maybe found here: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms752266.aspx

Shortcut links to hte individual samples themselves is as under:

(a) Basic Binding samples - Use the Pnrp resolver mode- http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms735119.aspx

b) Scenario sample -

(i) Chat - Demonstrates Chat using the non-PNRP custom resolver - http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms751502.aspx

(ii) Custom Resolver (Advanced users) - Demonstrates how to write your own Custom Resolver service and client (instead of using the Pnrp resolver OR the non-Pnrp default resolver service/client that we ship with already). - http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms751466.aspx

Enjoy!

-Shalini.

Note for Windows XP users: Pnrp v2 upgrade location

peerchan — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 00:44:00 GMT

PNRP resolver-based applications running on XPSP2 with the P2P networking pack installed are running v1 of the PNRP protocol. It is advisable to upgrade to PNRP v2 which can be downloaded as an XP update from http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/920342

Significance for Peer channel applications:

- The main advantage of this upgrade is that your apps are interoperable between Windows Vista and XPSP2

-Shalini.

Happy New Year with WCF RTM

peerchan — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 06:24:00 GMT

Hi,

This is old news now, but the Peer Channel team is happy to announce our RTM version, available as part of the .NET v3.0 WCF components download.

Thanks for trying out our technology and for helping us improve through all these releases..As always questions/feedback welcome.

- The Peer Channel Team.

Peer Channel - Getting Started

peerchan — Mon, 26 Sep 2005 04:21:00 GMT

PeerChannel is part of the Windows Communication Foundation(WCF, formerly Indigo) framework that enables development of managed Peer-to-Peer applications. We shipped as part of the Winfx SDK Beta1 and are now also part of the Pre-Beta2 September CTP release.

P2P unmanaged API's- are we related?

Yup. We are part of the same Windows team that gave us the P2P SDK (now part of Platform SDK)- Grouping, Graphing, Peer Name Resolution Protocol (PNRP) Name Space - the works.

Ok, so where do I begin?

Since we closely follow the Indigo programming model, getting a little familiar with Indigo(WCF) would be a good idea. A great place to start: http://msdn.microsoft.com/webservices/indigo/default.aspx
The September PDC slides related to PeerChannel and P2P in general maybe found at http://commnet.microsoftpdc.com/content/downloads.aspx under COM311 Developing P2P Applications Using Windows Vista and the Windows Communication Foundation (“Indigo”) PeerChannel
Install the latest Winfx SDK and runtime components from the following links:

WinFX SDK: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=C20CC6C8-1F4E-4A5C-BC79-C2FE9ABE69AA &displaylang=en
WinFX Runtime Components: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=FFD636F0-86E9-41E8-9E1C-100A4CC4888F &displaylang=en
VS Extensions for WinFX RC: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=EDE1A645-2A53-42E1-8482-3BF1FADADE06 &displaylang=en
WinFX RC Sept CTP “Readme”: http://msdn.microsoft.com/windowsvista/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dnlong/html/WinFXSeptPDCReadme.asp

4. Install Issues that I faced: I followed the steps above and experienced only one known setup problem with the RunTime Components that is also documented in the Setup Readme (4 above). I list it here for easy reference:

WinFX Redist Setup does not resume after reboot

An application is running that is using the .NET Framework v1.1, for example threadsleep.exe. After starting to install winfxrc.exe, you are presented with a reboot dialog and select "reboot now". After rebooting the following dialog box appears:

WinFX Runtime Components Core Redistributable Beta 2 Setup

The Windows Installer package:

c:\452ad5b9fcf1a01e1769fdcf801a\vs_setup.msi

could not be opened.

Choose Retry to try again. Choose Cancel to exit setup.

[Retry/Cancel]

Retry will not work because, after reboot, the temp folder is gone.

You click Cancel and start a new install of winfxrc.exe.

To resolve this issue:

Install .NET Framework from one of the following locations before running WinFX Setup.

X86 .NET Framework: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=51020

X64 .NET Framework: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=51021

—or—

Manually rerun seutp after the reboot.

Pasted from <http://msdn.microsoft.com/windowsvista/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dnlong/html/WinFXSeptPDCReadme.asp>

Other issues that you may encounter are documented in the readme file above (Step 3 above)

5. PeerChannel Samples: Found at C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\WinFX\samples\Allsamples\WindowsCommunicationFou
ndation\TechnologySamples\Basic\Binding\NetProfile\PeerTcp\CS,this Broadcast sample demonstrates how to implement a M:N broadcast application using a Peer Channel.

[Note] There are other samples (CustomResolver and Chat) available for download from the Beta1 release of the Winfx SDK. But these may NOT compile due to changes from the Beta1 model(naming changes, API changes etc). I'll talk about this in my next entry.

6. Sample Troubleshooting: (This was the only issue I saw with our samples in this release of the Winfx PreBeta2 SDK).

System.InvalidOperationException: Resolver must be specified. The default resolver (PNRP) is not available.

Resolution:

The sample assumes you are running PNRP. Since PNRP service is not enabled by default on Pre-Longhorn(Vista) platforms you need to follow the steps below to make sure PNRP* is up and running:

1. Go to Start=>Run. Type Appwiz.cpl. This opens the ControlPanel - Add Remove Software dialogue box. Choose Add Remove Windows Components and then choose Networking => Details. Make sure Peer-to-Peer is checked. Click Install.

2. Then, open up a cmd prompt and type "net start pnrpsvc". This should start up the installed pnrp service for us.

3. Run the sample now. This should solve the problem.

*PNRP is only available on the following Windows SKUs:
- Windows XP (SP1 + Networking pack installed)
- Windows XP SP2
- Windows Vista pre-release
- Windows 64-bit XP-Pro Client

PNRP is not available on any Windows Server SKUs, including Windows Server 2003 SP1.

-Shalini.