referencing other class methods without creating a new instance

Question

I have a class by itself called clientChat that does basic network stuff. I have several other classes linked to different window forms. In my first form I have a variable referenced to the chat class like so:

clientChat cc = new clientChat();

Everything works okay their, the class has been initialized and everything is in motion. After the first forms is done performing it's duty I bring up my second form that's obviously linked to a new class file.

Now my question is, how can I reference what's going on in the clientChat class without setting a new instance of the class? I need to pass data from the form to the networkstream and if I create a new instance of the class wouldn't that require a new connection to the server and basically require everything to start over since it's "new"? I'm a bit confused and any help would be great, thanks. C# on .NET4.0

Answer 1

You could create an instance of clientChat in the beginning of your program and then, simply pass its reference to the classes that need it.

Answer 2

You may want to look into the Singleton design pattern. Mr Skeet has written a good article on how to implement it in C# here. (Just use version 4. its the easiest and works fine =) )