TCP/IP and HL-7

[shannanl]

I have two machines in my network that communicate via TCP/IP using HL-7. One of the machines is a legacy machine and the company that supplies it charges a ton of money to write interfaces. I would like to somehow intercept the HL-7 messages coming from Legacy Machine to HL-7 machine (while still allowing them to go to the target machine). I have a need for these messages and do not want to pay for another interface to send the exact same data. I am the network administrator so I have permissions to all machines, switches, etc. I am also a vb programmer. Is there a way to do this?

Thanks,

Shannan

 

[lotharious]

If you have the data layout for the packets, the port for the program(s) it shouldn't be that hard.

The big issue here would be to find the HL-7 data layout so you can change the data to/from HL-7 and your new system layout.

Ideally you would write a server program and place it on 1 machine that doesnt have anything else running on it. Force the HL-7 Program(s) to connect to it, read/parse/output data to the new programs on the other machine(s) and send back responses.

If you can dynamically change the ports the programs connect to then you can always run the program on multiple machines and so forth.

Not knowing your environment and network setup I cant say how to do it so hopefully you get the idea. Being a NetAdmin it shouldnt be difficult as long you have the bases covered explained above.

 

[chiph]

I would like to somehow intercept the HL-7 messages coming from Legacy Machine to HL-7 machine (while still allowing them to go to the target machine).

This is the hard part. The sending machine is sending to the HL-7 machine, and doesn't know anything about a 3rd machine you'd like to add.

Seeing the data without changing the configuration of the sending machine (or the software running on it) is probably going to involve a network sniffer or a custom network driver. Not fun.

I would just suck it up, pay the vendor to make the changes, and make sure the changes send out everything you could possibly ever need to your monitoring server (so you don't have to call them back again in the future).

Chip H.


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