Communicating between 2 users whos ip addresses might change 1

[etrusks]

Hi, I'm thinking about creating some file transfer application similarish to skype.

I was thinking to create a server that would manage all user accounts. Users would 1st need to register or if they are already registered they would just log in of course and than they could search and add other users to their contact list.

Once you have some users added to your contact list you could start sending files to them.

The problem is that I don't know the IP address of specific user if I decide to connect to him. I was thinking maybe I could store the users IP address on the server and add that to his account details. This way I could connect to server who's address would be known and get IP address to specific user from the server. Don't know if this would be the best approach but it wouldn't work anyway because IP can change at any moment.

Could you guys suggest some ideas to work around this problem?

 

[DrB0b]

Is an FTP server not really what you are looking for? Store files and allow access based on credentials and allow sharing of files?

Learning - A never ending quest for knowledge usually attained by being thrown in a situation and told to fix it NOW.

 

[etrusks]

Thanks for the reply man!
Yea maybe it would work for the files but lets say I wanted to transfer messages as well if the other user was online. Than I would still be stuck with the same problem.

 

[DrB0b]

Define messages. Email, IM, text....?

Learning - A never ending quest for knowledge usually attained by being thrown in a situation and told to fix it NOW.

 

[etrusks]

Ups, sorry for the late reply. I was thinking just plain text messages. I figured out that maybe I could just connect all the users who come online to this 1 main server that's also managing all the user accounts. Than I could just ask for the IP address to this server of any user from my contacts list and send data directly to him.
Of course server would have to handle many socket connections at once if the user count online is very large so I don't know if this is the best approach.

 

[mattKnight]

I suggest that you probably need to look at SIP

Take Care

Matt
I have always wished that my computer would be as easy to use as my telephone.
My wish has come true. I no longer know how to use my telephone.

 

[etrusks]

Thank you mattKnight, I think this must be it