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Im new to Socket programming and im building a Socket over TCP-IP system with this architecture: system

Server: Basically a TCPIP Listener that waits for connection from the clients.

Client: It knows the server Ip and try to connect, when the connection is set i can send commands from another client that acts like the ADMIN.

In other words its like a chat system adapted to this use case.

Once the client receive the commands form the admin console it pass it to the LED display connected by Serial Port.

My question is:

If want to remove those clients(Laptop, PC) from the system, and connect directly to the led Display, how can i do it? What happen to the Client logic? Can i send the commands from the server directly to the led display?

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  • I've flagged the question for moderator attention. One of them should come and take a look at it soon.
    – Edoardo Pirovano
    Commented Jul 21, 2011 at 16:46

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if i understood correctly, that would mean that all the led displays are physically connected to the serial port of the server. instead of doing this, you might want to check some serial-over-ip products.

these products would allow your displays to be connected via serial to a "black box" but accessed through an ip address, in a transparent way. so the server is not a server anymore (no one else but the admin connected to it), and its only work is to control the displays.

beware: this actually removes a layer from your architecture (the client). and it may not be the actual desired outcome, depending on your needs/requirements. i guess the proposed architecture you show has some foundations that are not posted. you may want to give us a little more info if this "answer" was not useful :)

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  • mm... my virtual server is hosted on amazon EC2, could serial-over-ip still work on this type of servers? And i don't quite get the idea of Serial-over-Ip. does this means that a Led display will be connected to the Internet but pointing directly to the server port? to do this what kind of hardware/software is used to point to the server ip? Can this be used over Internet or just Internal Networks?
    – job
    Commented Jul 21, 2011 at 17:14
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    It would mean that the device which translates back and forth from IP-Serial would be connected to the internet somehow, and the displays would be connected to this device. You can have this device as a server or a client, so your server can actually be a client for each one of the displays. IMHO (from what you've said so far), I'd stick with the architecture having the clients. This will allow you to simplify the server and extend the clients on themselves, possibly adding features in the future (like ssl communication, etc)
    – marcelog
    Commented Jul 21, 2011 at 17:29

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