Talk:Android Apps - Free Knowledge Base- The DUCK Project: information for everyone

AndChat and DCC -or- How Chris is Wrong and might as well write for Wikipedia

XDCC send and receive
2 posts by 2 authors in AndChat

flangemonkey

8/8/11

Surely this must be a top feature to add? There are no android app IRC clients that currently support it. Having it would make AndChat by far the best IRC app around...

Chris

8/8/11

DCC with never be a plausible Android feature, with the stretch of an exception for Wifi clients. DCC works by revealing the real IP address of the sending client to the receiving client. If the receiving client accepts, their real IP address is then revealed to the sender. Once the real IP's have been revealed, the clients attempt to establish a DCC connection on a port that the two clients agree on. For each client to be able to use that port for the DCC connection, each client must either:

1. Be connected directly to the internet, and not behind a DHCP (or otherwise) router, or:

2. Must have a routing rule for their local IP and that port. Cell phones will always follow that #2 rule, because be it connected via EDGE/3G to a cell tower, or wifi to your home or other network, both of those mechanisms are routed, neither are connected directly to the internet. Without one of those two rules applying, the DCC connection will never be allowed to be made. This is why, unless you're on your home wifi and you manually set up a routing rule to your Android, DCC will never work on an Android, iPhone, or any other form of cell phone IRC.

Think of it this way:

Your phone as a person living in a hotel, let's say Bill, in room #1201, and my phone is in a different hotel, in room #502, and its name is Hank. When Hank calls to talk to Bill, they can't just dial to Bill's room phone, because there is no direct line to Bill's phone. They have to call the front desk, and ask to be transferred to room #1201. And vice versa. Now, imagine the front desk is a big faceless cell phone company whose only concern is allowing their guests to call out, and allow their hotel services to call in to the rooms, but with nobody at the front desk to take outside calls and forward them to the proper room(s). Internet (browsing), email, etc, are all "Internal Hotel Services", while DCC is an "Outside Call". Hopefully that makes sense.

Chris

- show quoted text -

coltswalker

11:56 AM

Chris there is a significant inaccuracy in your response and analogy. * * * There very well can be DCC on Android for any Android device that supports WiFi connection. As it may be impossible/impractical to ever implement DCC via the carrier Internet connection, alternatively, the WifI connection is already being utilized by devices capable of DCC. My laptop computer connected via WiFi to my LAN, which is also behind a router and using NAT, performs DCC file transfers to IRC users very well. When I connect my Android to my WiFi, it has the same capability, however, is only limited by the fact that AndChat programmers have yet to add a DCC option. If I put Linux on the device, and run xchat, I could dcc, so it is not a _hardware_ or _wifi_ limitation such as you suggest. In other words, the hotel is allowing inter-room calls and external to room calls as long as it is the wifi hotel and not the cell carrier network hotel. Just make sure you stay in the wifi hotel and wait patiently for andchat developers to implement this critically needed feature!

Even the very argument you provide contains within it a subtext that disproves your assertion. You should consider more carefully that neither WiFi nor NAT (Network Address Translation) are new to IP devices. A Microsoft Windows tablet running the appropriate IRC chat client can accommodate DCC chat and file. An Android tablet could also, connected to the same WiFi LAN if someone would develop a DCC capable IRC client. Obviously the LAN has to be configured correctly (in other words you would not be able to count on DCC working universally across any public wifi hotspot). But that is acceptable. Sitting here in my home where I am the network administrator, it would be nice to have an IRC chat client on my Android that will DCC so I could put the old laptop computer away.

- show quoted text -

12:01 PM

I agree! It is technically very possible although users would be limited to using DCC only when connected to WiFi and given that the WiFi networking being used is properly configured to accommodate DCC. Your IP address would be exposed, as Chris points out. Chris is wrong in discounting the possibility of Android being capable of DCC, as I explained in my rebuttal. Although the Android user would be limited to using DCC only when connected to permissive WiFi networks, it is very possible and would be extremely useful to have DCC as a feature in a future release of AndChat.

On Monday, August 8, 2011 3:44:29 AM UTC-5, flangemonkey wrote: Surely this must be a top feature to add? There are no android app IRC clients that currently support it. Having it would make AndChat by far the best IRC app around...

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