Network communication with Windows Services

microsoft.public.dotnet.framework

26 Apr 2007 4:19 PM

therealbigcoops

Hello,

I am designing an system where Windows services (clients) are
distributed across a company LAN. The clients are written in Win32
since not all network machines may not have .NET Framework
installed. The clients connect to a central SQL database to report
relavent status information from the network machines. There is a
WinForms application that monitors and provides results of the
distributes clients to an operator. The application also allows the
operator to deploy the clients to the remote machines via Windows
Networking APIs, or externally using Active Directory and a supplied
Windows Installer Package that installs the Windows Service client out
to the network.

The target network(s) are Windows based using Active Directory. The
client machines are Windows 98 and above....however, we may limit the
requirements to only support Windows 2000 and above if necessary.

I was hoping some of you can provide your opinions on the following
questions:

1) Given the above design/architecture, do you think there are other
or better methods for implementing the system? ie, any other
technologies that would better suite the situation other than each
client directly connecting to SQL Server...

2) Please comment on the idea of using a web service (installed on the
database server) for clients to connect to provide status information?

3) Are there other or better technologies for distributing the Windows
Service clients outside of the ones mentioned above? Note, this
system will be used on a broad range of networks that may not have
specific technologies in production.

Thanks in advance for your input. Its always good to get other
opinions.