Listening to a port securely using .NET 3.5

Question

I want to listen to a port on a server, and securely process the files. Are there any standard ways to listen in .NET 3.5 or any recommendations. The data is coming from a 3rd party tools and we can route the outbound to any port. Any Ideas and recommendations. Can WCF be used?.

Answer 1

I'm not sure what you mean when you say "securely", or "process the files". You can use the TcpClient class, or Sockets.

Answer 2

Not sure what your requirements are exactly, but if you want to use WCF look at this article.

Answer 3

You can tunnel over SSL for security (or privacy).

Alternately, you can use something like IPSec to establish an encrypted connection. The capabilities of the endpoint matter, so without more information I don't know how much I can help.

Answer 4

Not only can WCF be used I would highly recommend it instead of the more low level suggestions unless there is a very specific reason you can't use WCF (which I can't imagine with the gazillion config options). You have different layers you can apply security at in WCF the message level meaning the contents is encrypted and checksummed and transport meaning the underlying connection is encrypted with SSL on HTTPS for instance. This post by Aaron Skonnard nicely lists the different WCF bindings and their supported modes of transport, transaction handling, layers of security etc...

WCF can be a bit daunting at first because it supports so many things but Programming WCF Services 2nd edition should get you on your way very fast and it's an excellent book!