What is the most hostile corporate environment to deploy a .NET WinForms app on?

Question

Suppose you were writing a network-based WinForms application which is supposed to run in a "paranoid" environment due to restrictive company policies at the customer site. What kind of restrictions did such hostile environment have, and what did you do to design around them?

Some examples to begin with:

• Problem: There is a very restrictive firewall that only allows outbound port 80 traffic. Solution: use only HTTP to do your networking.
• Problem: The .NET framework is not allowed. Solution: turn your app into a web app.

What are some such restrictions you have faced in real-life customer situations, such as for example in banking software (which typically needs to live in a particularly strict environment)?

Answer 1

Well, the first part of the question, I'm not sure about. However, as to your bullet points. You could run your server on port 80 and NOT use HTTP but your custom protocol. Additionaly, surely the firewall allows SSL (443), you could wrap your protocol in SSL as well. As far as the .NET framework not being allowed, you could use Xenocode's PostBuild or similar "static linking" sort of application for .NET. Also, as for the HTTP stuff, you could make your application communicate over HTTP but use Web Services and therefore still provide a rich client.

Here's a link to PostBuild:

https://secure.xenocode.com/Products/Postbuild-for-NET/