Getting MSDN PeerChannel "SecureChat" running on Windows Server 2008 R2

Question

I can only get this SDK sample of PeerChannel SecureChat to work in the following scenarios in a basic home network:

• Locally among instances running on the same machine, or
• Among Windows 7 machines

I cannot get this to work between my Windows Server 2008 R2 and any other machine (no exceptions are thrown, but the nodes never find each other and thus don't go "online"). I CAN ping the IPv6 addresses among all machines. The executable has a firewall exception rule, but I have also tried disabling the Windows 2008 firewall completely. The PRNP Service is running.

1. Is it possible to get it working? How?

2. Does it work on YOUR 2008 machine?

My best guess: I notice that in the Windows 7 machines, the "Peer Networking Grouping" and "Peer Networking Identity Manager" services are present. The "Peer Networking Grouping" service's description there and online talks specifically about enabling multi-party conversations, but related to Home Groups. This service is missing in the Windows Server machine.

So, I suspect the missing service as the reason that the SecureChat sample won't work on the Windows Server machine, but I don't understand why Microsoft would lock out Peer Channel from working on the Server product. Could this be the reason?

Thanks!

Answer 1

Try enabling these services on the server:

1. Peer Name Resolution Server (Install through Server Management)
2. Peer Discovery Server (Install through Server Management)
3. Simple Service Discovery Protocol Service (SSDP Service)

Then simply ensure that the Firewall Rules are modified; by default they block IPv4 / IPv6 Teredo Tunneling driver. IPv6 needs to be supported as it is required by PNRP.

Also you should be able to configure your service in two ways; through Internet Information Systems (IIS) or as a Windows Service. Your best bet will be to use IIS, you can find an article here on how to configure it: Hosting and Consuming WCF Service

Those are the few tips I can think of to get it running. Hope that helps.