Sending chat messages across different computers?

Okay, i made a chat program with immense help from the msdn pages on winsock2. right now im not actually sending any messages with it, but hey its connecting so thats something. but it only connects when i run server and client both on the same computer. How do i establish the connection on not only other computers on my network, but also on other networks (without port forwarding/mapping)? Thank you in advance.

server:

Code:

---

#include <winsock2.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <windows.h>
#define _WIN32_WINNT 0x501
#include <ws2tcpip.h>

#define DEFAULT_PORT "2001"
#define DEFAULT_BUFLEN 512

int main()
{
WSADATA wsaData;

int iResult;

//initialize winsock

iResult=WSAStartup(MAKEWORD(2,1), &wsaData);
if (iResult!=0)
{
    printf("WSAStartup failed: %d\n", iResult);
    return 1;
}



struct addrinfo *result=NULL, *ptr=NULL, hints;

ZeroMemory(&hints, sizeof (hints));
hints.ai_family=AF_INET;
hints.ai_socktype=SOCK_STREAM;
hints.ai_protocol=IPPROTO_TCP;

iResult=getaddrinfo("127.0.0.1", DEFAULT_PORT, &hints, &result);
    if (iResult!=0)
    {
        printf("getaddrinfo failed: %d\n", iResult);
        WSACleanup();
        return 1;

    }




//creating the socket

SOCKET ListenSocket=INVALID_SOCKET;
ListenSocket=socket(result->ai_family, result->ai_socktype, result->ai_protocol);

//error reporting-socket created successfully?

    if (ListenSocket==INVALID_SOCKET)
    {
        printf("Error at socket(): %ld\n", WSAGetLastError());
        freeaddrinfo(result);
        WSACleanup();
        return 1;
    }



//binding the socket to the network ie making it visible to client
iResult=bind(ListenSocket,result->ai_addr, (int)result->ai_addrlen);
if (iResult==SOCKET_ERROR)
{
    printf("bind failed with error: %d\n", WSAGetLastError());
    freeaddrinfo(result);
    closesocket(ListenSocket);
    WSACleanup();
    return 1;
}

freeaddrinfo(result); //no longer needed. it is already bound with the info



//listening for client
if (listen(ListenSocket, SOMAXCONN)==SOCKET_ERROR)
{
    printf("listen failed with error: %ld\n", WSAGetLastError());
    closesocket(ListenSocket);
    WSACleanup();
    return 1;
}

//temp socket to accept discovered connections
SOCKET ClientSocket;
ClientSocket=INVALID_SOCKET;

ClientSocket=accept(ListenSocket, NULL, NULL); //passing the connection from listenSocket to CLientSocket to be handled
if (ClientSocket==INVALID_SOCKET)
{
    printf("accept failed on client socket: %d\n", WSAGetLastError());
    closesocket(ListenSocket);
    WSACleanup();
    return 1;
}

//send/recv
//def buflen is 512 remember

char recvbuf[DEFAULT_BUFLEN];
int iSendResult; //took out iResult, it was a redeclaration
int recvbuflen=DEFAULT_BUFLEN; //should send/recv be a separate f(x)?

do {

    iResult=recv(ClientSocket, recvbuf, recvbuflen, 0);
    if (iResult>0)
    {
        printf("bytes received: %d\n", iResult);

    //echoing the message being received back to the sender
    iSendResult=send(ClientSocket, recvbuf, iResult, 0);
        if (iSendResult==SOCKET_ERROR)
        {
            printf("send (echo) failed: %d\n", WSAGetLastError());
            closesocket(ClientSocket);
            WSACleanup();
            return 1;
        }
    printf("bytes sent: %d\n", iSendResult);

    }
    else if (iResult==0)
    {
        printf("connection closing...\n");
    }
    else
    {
        printf("recv failed: %d\n", WSAGetLastError());
        closesocket(ClientSocket);
        WSACleanup();
        return 1;
    }
}

while (iResult>0);



//breaking the connection and closing the socket
iResult=shutdown(ClientSocket, SD_SEND);
if (iResult==SOCKET_ERROR)
{
    printf("shutdown failed: %d\n", WSAGetLastError());
    closesocket(ClientSocket);
    WSACleanup();
    return 1;
}
closesocket(ClientSocket);
WSACleanup();
return 0;
}

---

client:

Code:

---


#include <winsock2.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <windows.h>
#define _WIN32_WINNT 0x501
#include <ws2tcpip.h>
#pragma comment(lib, "Mswsock.lib")
#pragma comment(lib, "AdvApi32.lib")

#define DEFAULT_PORT "2001"
#define DEFAULT_BUFLEN 512


int main()
{

WSADATA wsaData;

int iResult;

//initialize winsock

iResult=WSAStartup(MAKEWORD(2,1), &wsaData);
if (iResult!=0)
{
    printf("WSAStartup failed: %d\n", iResult);
    return 1;
}




    struct addrinfo *result=NULL, *ptr=NULL, hints;
    ZeroMemory(&hints, sizeof(hints));
    hints.ai_family=AF_UNSPEC;
    hints.ai_socktype=SOCK_STREAM;
    hints.ai_protocol=IPPROTO_TCP;

//find server address and port

iResult = getaddrinfo(NULL, DEFAULT_PORT, &hints, &result); //wasnt originally null, it was "argv[1]"
if (iResult != 0) {
    printf("getaddrinfo failed: %d\n", iResult);
    WSACleanup();
    return 1;
}

//create socket
SOCKET ConnectSocket=INVALID_SOCKET;

//connect to ip ehhhh
for (ptr=result;ptr!=NULL;ptr=ptr->ai_next)
{
    ConnectSocket=socket(ptr->ai_family, ptr->ai_socktype, ptr->ai_protocol);


    if (ConnectSocket == INVALID_SOCKET) {
        printf("Error at socket(): %ld\n", WSAGetLastError());
        freeaddrinfo(result);
        WSACleanup();
        return 1;
    }

//connecting----------------------
iResult=connect(ConnectSocket, ptr->ai_addr, (int)ptr->ai_addrlen);

    if (iResult==SOCKET_ERROR)
    {
        closesocket(ConnectSocket);
        ConnectSocket=INVALID_SOCKET;
        continue;
    }
    break;

}

freeaddrinfo(result);

if (ConnectSocket == INVALID_SOCKET) {
    printf("Unable to connect to server!\n");
    WSACleanup();
    return 1;
}


//send/recv-------------------------

int recvbuflen=DEFAULT_BUFLEN;
char *sendbuf="this is a test";
char recvbuf[DEFAULT_BUFLEN];

iResult=send(ConnectSocket, sendbuf, (int) strlen(sendbuf), 0);

if (iResult == SOCKET_ERROR) {
    printf("send failed: %d\n", WSAGetLastError());
    closesocket(ConnectSocket);
    WSACleanup();
    return 1;
}

printf("bytes sent: %ld\n", iResult);

//shutdown
iResult = shutdown(ConnectSocket, SD_SEND);
if (iResult == SOCKET_ERROR) {
    printf("shutdown failed: %d\n", WSAGetLastError());
    closesocket(ConnectSocket);
    WSACleanup();
    return 1;
}

//still have to receive data, even though we cant send it any longer. this iwll continue until the server disconnects,
//which will happen once it is doing echoing the client's message usually
do {
    iResult = recv(ConnectSocket, recvbuf, recvbuflen, 0);
    if (iResult > 0)
        printf("Bytes received: %d\n", iResult);
    else if (iResult == 0)
        printf("Connection closed\n");
    else
        printf("recv failed: %d\n", WSAGetLastError());
} while (iResult > 0);


closesocket(ConnectSocket);
WSACleanup();
return 0;

}

---

1. WHat is the socket address the client tries to connect to? Is it the correct address of the server?
2. Is the firewall on? Is the used socket port enabled?

It looks like your server is only listening on "127.0.0.1". You need to listen on any available address, or at least on a network address reachable from the outside.