Hi all,
I've written a Flash (Flex) client connecting to a back-end server to exchange data.
I've also written my server from scratch, and it serves two purposes:
(1) Web (HTTP) Server- By default listens on port 80
(2) Socket/Application- Server - By default listens on port 443
Just FYI, both servers run in the same process space, for convenience reasons. They are not expected to handle massive loads, so I'm fine with that.
As soon as the Flash client is served to the browser from the HTTP socket, the client attempts to open an XMLSocket to the Socket/Application server.
I now want to implement HTTP tunneling, so that my client can connect to the Application server even if the user is behind a firewall. I do not want any external servers involved (proxies etc.) - simply use the servers I already have.
My questions:
(1) Is it better to use port 443 for that? (does it better fool firewalls?)
(2) As far as I can see, what I am required to do, is just ensure that my actual application data is simply encapsulated in an HTTP structure (preceded by a dummy HTTP header), both from the client and server sides. Is that so or am I missing anything here?
(3) Do I need to keep hiding/encapsulating my data every message I send through the socket, or can I just encapsulate the first message when opening the connection?
Thanks in advance guys! Fuzz