Chapter 12: .NET Remoting

Overview

The Microsoft Windows .NET Framework offers an easy way to develop highly distributed network applications by using .NET remoting. With .NET remoting you can develop applications that seamlessly access classes on one or more computers across a network ”without having to deal with the complexities of programming to the network layer itself.

This chapter will examine how .NET remoting relates to the network and how remoting and the network enable you to build applications that communicate across a network to access class types in other application domains on other computers. We will focus on how to set up remoting to communicate over a network by selecting an appropriate channel. We ll assume you are familiar with core concepts. For more comprehensive instruction in .NET remoting, we recommend Microsoft .NET Remoting by Scott McLean, James Naftel, and Kim Williams (Microsoft Press, 2002).

In this chapter, we ll describe application domains and how .NET remoting allows you to access class types across application domains between two processes. You ll learn that this technique requires first setting up a .NET remoting communication channel to form a link (or channel) between application domains and that setting up a communication channel requires using a built-in channel in the .NET Framework, such as the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) channel. Developing a custom channel is also an option. We ll describe the built- in channels and their features and discuss their strengths and weaknesses. We ll also explain how to develop a custom channel that can communicate across a network. Understanding how to develop a channel will give you insight into how .NET remoting communicates between application domains. Further, developing a custom channel will help you build distributed applications that can run across almost any data transmission medium, such as a satellite link.