FAQ 34.39 How stable is DCOM s infrastructure?

FAQ 34.39 How stable is DCOM's infrastructure?

DCOM is based on the Distributed Computing Environment (DCE) Remote Procedure Call (RPC) mechanism, thus inheriting a stable and proven cross-platform communication protocol. DCE RPC has been in use for a number of years and has proven its worth.

Although DCE RPC is complex, it brings a wealth of capabilities to DCOM. DCOM uses DCE-compatible RPCs for marshaling data and operates over a variety of protocols including TCP/IP, IPX, UDP, and NetBIOS (see FAQ 34.15 for more information regarding marshaling). Although DCOM uses DCE as its RPC mechanism by default, much of DCOM can be overridden and customized. For instance, a DCOM system might handle data marshaling on its own or it might decide not to use DCE at all and provide its own RPC mechanism.

DCOM includes a distributed security mechanism providing authentication and data encryption. DCOM includes provision for using naming services for locating class and objects on other machines, including both Domain Name System (DNS) and Active Directory with NT 5.0.