I've literally searched the internet for the last 5 hours and I have tried every suggestion out there and I'm starting to wonder if what I want to do is simply not possible....
Most webservers only allow X simultaneous connections for uploading/downloading. I simply want to upload my many files faster, by connecting/uploading through various proxies. However, no program I can find has anything for automatic proxy configuration, and only for a specific proxy IP. I have an account with a proxy service that gives you a different IP address for every request/connection made through it. I can connect to this fine from any FTP program but it appears that the servers are confused when they see different IP's connecting, and there's no way to manually whitelist/authenticate them on the server side, so it simply closes all connections. I even have a list of IP addresses with port/user/pass that I am willing to use, but I can't figure out how to do anything other than use a specific proxy to upload/download from servers.... Is this even possible????
ANY HELP/INPUT IS GREATLY APPRECIATED!!
I am working on some legacy code on Windows for a desktop app in "C.
The client needs to know the geo-location of the user who is running the application.
I have the geo-location code all working (using MaxMind: http://dev.maxmind.com/).
But now I'm looking for help in getting their external IP.
From all the discussions on this topic throughout SO and elsewhere it seems that there is a way to do this by connecting to a "reliable" host (server) and then doing some kind of lookup. I'm not too savvy on WinSock but this is the technology that may be the simplest to use.
Another option is to use WinHttpConnect technology.
Both have "C" interfaces.
Thank you for your support and suggestions.
You can write a simple web service that checks the IP address(es) that the program presents when connecting to that web service.
Look at http://whatismyip.com for an example.
Note that multiple addresses can be presented by the HTTP protocol if there are proxy servers along the route.
You can design your simple web service to get the IP of the client. See
How do I get the caller's IP address in a WebMethod?
and then return that address back to the caller.
Note that in about 15% of cases (my experience metric) the geo location will be way off. The classic example is that most AOL users are routed through a small number of proxy servers. However, there are many other cases where the public IP does not match the user's actual location. Additionally, Geo IP databases are sometimes just wrong.
Edit
It is not possible to detect your external IP address using only in-browser code.
The WebSocket has no provision to expose your external IP address.
https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc6455
You need an outside server to tell you what IP it sees.
I wrote a tool running on a system (Win7) with two network interfaces, each linked to a different subnet, each with its own gateway which is then linked to two separate distant networks (there are outgoing firewalls after each gateway). I’m initiating outgoing TCP connections via both NICs by using Socket.Bind (before doing Connect) to each relevant NIC’s IP address. First NIC is working fine, but for the second NIC, I’m getting SocketException: “A socket operation was attempted to an unreachable network”.
My original understanding was that since sockets are bound to concrete NIC’s local endpoint, which has its gateway defined, the connection should be routed to this gateway and therefore should work. However, it seems that source IP address is ignored and the routing is working according to local routing table (i.e. second NIC’s connect request goes to first, default, network and being rejected because it has wrong subnet).
Adjusting local routing tables helps, but it makes me wonder about the whole reasoning behind ability of the socket to bind to specific local IP.
Doing some extra reading, I found out that, indeed, there’s such thing as “source IP routing”, but it is disabled in Windows by default (via DisableIPSourceRouting registry setting), due to security reasons, as described, e.g. here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff648853.aspx
http://www.bloggersbase.com/disableipsourcerouting/
Questions:
If my original understanding was correct (i.e. Socket.Bind should be enough) – why it is not working without modifying routing tables?
If my understand was NOT correct (i.e. Socket.Bind is ignored and routing is used) – what’s the point of having Socket.Bind? Why doing it at all?
Also, I’d like to understand better, what is the actual risk of having source IP routing enabled (preferably with example of a possible exploit)?
Any ideas of solving the requirement without manually modifying local routing table will be greatly appreciated.
Many thanks.
OK, after some reading, here are some high-level explanations on what's happening. I still need to verify the below conclusions in my system. Apparently, local binding is typically ignored when selecting network interface. Instead, routing table is used for this. However, in Strong Host Model (default for Vista and newer, non-existant in XP), source IP is used as a 'constraint' in the routing table lookup.
Brief explanation about strong host model vs. weak host model:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2007.09.cableguy.aspx
Explanation on what's different in XP vs newer Windows versions in respect to the above:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/networking/archive/2009/04/24/source-ip-address-selection-on-a-multi-homed-windows-computer.aspx
The project I'm working on is to handle data capture from scan guns (Pocket PC 2003) and process this data on a host (Win XP) then into our inventory database on a separate server (Win 2000). This is all driven by the Remoting framework provided by MS and As Good As It Gets (http://gotcf.net). The application is complete enough for a general proof of concept with both the client and server working properly while in the emulator.
All is well until I began to test using actual scan guns. Due to security concerns, the scanners are on a separate network (for clarification the 10 network) than the server (the 15 network). My development machine has dual NIC connected to both networks and can communicate with both independently. However, I am having issues with my application receiving information from the 10 network using .Net Remoting, and then sending out information to the server on the 15 network via a third party app (Combination of ODBC, Btrieve, and OLE).
Is there anyway to process information from one network then update the server on another?
Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated!
Note: I'm not very familiar with networking, thus I may be calling it the wrong name but the gun IP's start with 10...* and the server IP's start with 15...*
So long as the computer's routing table is properly configured, you shouldn't have to worry about this from your application. So long as you're using the proper IP addresses, the networking stack should take care of delivering things to the right place.
You might want to check the output of "route print" (at least I think that was available on WinXp -- if not, someone else will likely post the correct command for XP soon). In any way, you should see what network destinations are configured for which interfaces. You'll need to make sure that the server's IP on the 15 network will properly route via the interface you want (ie. the lowest-cost matching destination/netmask lists your 15 interface).
The issue seems to stem from both the NIC cards not set up properly and a so far unresolved issue with the frameworks I've chosen.
To solve the NIC problem, the easiest solution I'd found had me clear the default gateway on the 10 network.
The other issue deals with recreating the remoting objects after they've been destroyed. I currently have to warm boot the scanner in order to re-connect to the host. In order to correct this issue I'm going to contact As Good As It Gets to see what their input is. Damn firewall
I often run into problems where I can't get something to connect to something else. I usually forget to check something obvious. Can you help with:
A tip/technique for diagnosing a connection issue
The name of a tool or application that can help (and the situation in which it's useful)
I know the question is a little non-specific, but hopefully the answers can form a useful starting point for anybody who's stuck trying to get computers/programs talking to each other.
Please can you give one answer per answer so the best ones can be voted up.
Simple checks to run when debugging network problems:
Has each machine got an IP address, Go to command prompt and run ipconfig. Key things to check here are the interfaces and ensuring the appropriate ones have IP addresses.
Check both machines IP addresses are in the same range and subnet if you are running it on an internal or Virtual network.
Try pinging each machine from the other to see if they can communicate with each other. Note that some firewalls will block ping requests.
If Pinging fails then check to see if firewalls are active. If the communication is within a 'safe' internal network then try disabling the firewalls and re-pinging.
If the connections are over a wireless network then check signal strength.
If pinging fails and you are connecting through several networks then try running a tracert to see at which will may show you where on the network the connection is failing.
If you are able to ping but not connect then check firewall settings and network connection settings. Windows 2000+ has the capability of setting port an ip access on a connection properties.
Try drawing a network diagram of the connections to help in visualising the problem.
If you are connecting through routers, firewalls and loadbalancers then check that all devices are not tied to any specific ip addresses and that the IP address redirection (if in place) is correct. Also check any NAT logs to see if connections are being received and properly re-directed.
Wireshark
Latest versions of ProcMon
netstat
Wireshark www.wireshark.org
Wireshark is a network protocol analyzer for Unix and Windows.
Features:
Deep inspection of hundreds of protocols, with more being added all the time
Live capture and offline analysis
Standard three-pane packet browser
Multi-platform: Runs on Windows, Linux, OS X, Solaris, FreeBSD, NetBSD, and many others
Captured network data can be browsed via a GUI, or via the TTY-mode TShark utility
The most powerful display filters in the industry
Rich VoIP analysis
Read/write many different capture file formats: tcpdump (libpcap), Catapult DCT2000, Cisco Secure IDS iplog, Microsoft Network Monitor, Network General Sniffer® (compressed and uncompressed), Sniffer® Pro, and NetXray®, Network Instruments Observer, Novell LANalyzer, RADCOM WAN/LAN Analyzer, Shomiti/Finisar Surveyor, Tektronix K12xx, Visual Networks Visual UpTime, WildPackets EtherPeek/TokenPeek/AiroPeek, and many others
Capture files compressed with gzip can be decompressed on the fly
Live data can be read from Ethernet, IEEE 802.11, PPP/HDLC, ATM, Bluetooth, USB, Token Ring, Frame Relay, FDDI, and others (depending on your platfrom)
Decryption support for many protocols, including IPsec, ISAKMP, Kerberos, SNMPv3, SSL/TLS, WEP, and WPA/WPA2
Coloring rules can be applied to the packet list for quick, intuitive analysis
Output can be exported to XML, PostScript®, CSV, or plain text.
work the OSI model from the bottom up
Physical (Do you have a network adapter/connection)
Link layer (arp, ethernet port blocked by network team (I've seen this where locked down environments see two MAC addresses coming from one workstation port and shut down the port)
Network layer (ipconfig, tracert, ping,)
Do you have a network address (DHCP, fixed)
Are you on a proper subnet/have routing between subnets
Is something in the middle blocking you
firewalls, routing tables
When in doubt, check to see if the windows firewall is messing with your communications. 8 times out of 10, it's at fault.
Using tracert is a good start to see how far along the chain you are getting.
For virtual machines it's usally a good idea to make sure you have the loopback adapter set correctly in the Host os.
Most frequently used tool is the ping. It can be used both to test your connection and the availability of a target
Second tool is the tracert if you want to see where the packets get lost.
For more advanced debugging I use the following tools: nmap, wireshark, etc.
Windows has a netstat utility which is pretty similar to the Unix netstat and can do a number of different things that might help you solve network issues.
Random example:
netstat -r displays routing information
netstat /? for usage information
Since you said you're using 2 virtual machines I would hazard a guess that both machines are setup in a NAT configuration (rather than a unique network device) -- In the NAT configuration, neither machine would (typically) be able to ping the other.
If you're familiar with the command line, you can try the "netstat" command.
You can also try "arp -a" to list all the IP/MAC addresses known to your PC.
The "tracert [ip address]" command will show you how many gateways/routers your packets jump through on their way to their destination. (This is probably not helpful if both machines are on the same network, though.)
And don't forget to check your Windows firewall settings.
Otherwise, if you want to get down and dirty, you can try the packet sniffer known as Wireshark: http://www.wireshark.org/ (aka. Ethereal)
Pull the network cable out
If you can get some communications to a device (eg a ping), but can't get your program to talk to a service on the computer. Then, try pulling the network cable out and see if the ping stops. This will verify you're communicating with the computer you really think you are.
On windows i user PortQueryUI : http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=24009
DNS activity: Portable DNS Cache and Firewall;
General network activity: Wireshark, Network Monitor;
Windows utilities: ping, netstat, nslookup.
You need to be use the process of elimination, for example if you can ping the ip address but not the hostname then there's DNS issues. If you can ping the system but not connect to a share etc.
DNS out of sync
If you're using a virtual machine and you perform a roll-back on it, then it could become out of sync with the DNS (Domain name server). Try to remove and re-add the machine to the domain, or if you've got access to the DNS machine, then get it to flush its cache.