VB6.0 compatible control that will work on Win 7 for SSL3 communication

Question

Our VB6 application uses a 3rd party control (PowerTCP from Dart) for SSL3 connectivity. However, this doesn't seem to work on Windows 7 - and I have not found any useful information on what I can do to make it work.

Is there a VB6.0 compatible control that will work on Win 7 for SSL3 communication?

Answer 1

Dart still support the ActiveX control - why not ask them for help directly and post a question on their support forum?

Apologies in advance if you've already tried this.

Answer 2

Unfortunately, I can only suggest a workaround, not a solution: If you do not find a suitable ActiveX control for your VB6 application, you might consider migrating the communication part of your application to VB.NET.

This has the following advantages:

• Calling .net code from VB6 is not hard.
• The .net Framework has a built-in SSLStream class, which might already do what you want, so you're not dependent on a third-party component.
• Since VB6 IDE support ended in April 2008, you will probably want to migrate your application to VB.NET sooner or later anyway. Therefore, migrating parts of your application now might be a better investment of your time than familiarizing yourself with a new third-party ActiveX control.

It has the following disadvantages:

• One more layer in your application: Your VB6 code can call the .net code, but not vice-versa.
• You need to familiarize yourself with the .net-COM interop stuff (it's not difficult, but it's something that needs to be done).
• Your deployment process becomes more complicated, since you require the .net Framework to be installed on your customer's machines and you need to register your .net library as a COM component (so that your VB6 application can access it).