Sockets'R'In

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 15:29:12 GMT

Moonlight 2 preview #4 is now available! New in this preview release is socket support, including the security policies that surrounds them. Moonlight support for sockets is identical to what Silverlight 2 offers, meaning:

it's client only (i.e. no listening)
it's TCP only (i.e. no UDP sockets)
it's asynchronous only (a good very thing IMO)
the port range is limited between 4502-4534 and can be further limited by the policy
it always requires a cross-domain policy, even if it is connecting back to the site of origin (SoO)
the plugin will request the policy on port 943 of the host you wish to connect to (see sockpol)
this policy must be in the Silverlight format (clientaccesspolicy.xml) not in the Flash policy format (crossdomain.xml)

Not many socket applications are available live on the net but there is a small chat app to test them @ http://www.michielpost.nl/PostDetail_7.aspx.

Note: a lot was written about Silverlight sockets for the 2.0 beta 1 and betas (like previews ;-) reviews are often misrepresenting the final features.

Poupou's blog

Sockets'R'In