Remoting objects and remote connections

Question

I'm using .NET remoting for some simple observer-based IPC. I've been having two problems:

1. If I don't make any calls from the client on a remote object for a few minutes, an error is thrown when I do try to call, specifying that the connection has been dropped. How can I keep this alive?

2. I can't seem to accept clients from other computers over TCP. I'm using a TcpChannel configured as such:

   BinaryServerFormatterSinkProvider serverProv = new 
       BinaryServerFormatterSinkProvider();
   serverProv.TypeFilterLevel = TypeFilterLevel.Full;
   BinaryClientFormatterSinkProvider clientProv = new 
       BinaryClientFormatterSinkProvider();
   IDictionary props = new Hashtable();
   props["port"] = port;
   TcpChannel channel = new TcpChannel( props, clientProv, serverProv );
   
   
   ChannelServices.RegisterChannel( channel, false );
   
   
   RemotingConfiguration.RegisterWellKnownServiceType( typeof( Controller ),
       "Controller", WellKnownObjectMode.Singleton );
   

And when a client app tries to connect ( m_Controller = (Controller)RemotingServices.Connect( typeof( Controller ), "tcp://" + ip + ":2594/Controller" ) ), it always times out. I am not behind a firewall and my ports are forwarded properly. I can use this port for socket-based apps but not for remoting for some reason. Please help!

Answer 1

1. Have you initialized the Controller object's lifetime? See http://www.diranieh.com/NETRemoting/InDepthRemoting.htm.
2. See my answer in here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/719576/remoting-connection-over-tcp/719630#719630.