From: James Tucker <jftucker@...>
Date: 2008-01-04T04:44:55+09:00
Subject: Re: [OT] Help Request: Dialup, CardBus Cell Phone, etc. Modem IP Loopback Test


On 3 Jan 2008, at 15:31, Bill Kelly wrote:
> The original code (in Java) is now lost to the mists of time
> (and previous employers :)
>
> So I can't say for SURE that we were properly binding to loopback
> instead of 0.0.0.0.
>
> But at the time we got bitten pretty badly by certain OS' wanting
> to dial the modem, and it was a problem that Apple acknowledged as
> unfixable in their OS.9 systems at the time (even over loopback.)
> We also experienced the problem on Win 9x systems with AOL accounts.

Although I haven't spent any time looking at it professionally, some  
of the older AOL installations did nasty things hooking over the dial  
up and IP stacks. In some versions it would even auto-launch the AOL  
branded browser etc.

> Given that we only experienced the problem in certain OS and
> software environments, I was hoping a variety of dialup users might
> try my test program, in the hopes of learning whether there may yet
> any systems out there that exhibit the undesired behavior.

Some might. If you want truly local comms, you could use named pipes  
and / or unix sockets (clearly there are platform specifics to be  
dealt with).

>
> Regards,
>
> Bill
>
>
>