if possible start VPN connection in iPhone app? - iphone

as topic, I want establish VPN connection in iPhone app, if it possible? but seem not public API for this purpose ...
anyone give tip, thanks.

I've seen RDP over VPN using the iPhone (though I haven't set it up myself) and Cisco indicates support for VPN connections from iPhone on their ASA series:
And Apple provides instructions.
So VPN connections using a variety of protocols are definitely possible. However, initiating the connection programmatically is a different matter.
I did some additional reading (including old posts here on SO like VPN connection with Objective-C).
The more that I think about it, allowing an application to quietly initiate a VPN connection could pose a big security risk. I would be surprised to see API support for it.
However, creating your own VPN client on the iPhone (though MUCH more difficult than making an API call) is still theoretically possible.

Related

Bonjour - one server multiple clients - ios iPhone

Im developing an app where one iOS device act as "server", and other devices are acting like clients.
Im getting hard time with understanding if I can make this using Bonjour
If I make an example:
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
All devices have same app installed. All users are connected to the same WIFI.
User must login into app, and when it does, chat rooms are populated from CMS (web server) from internet.
All of them see e.g. all "chat rooms". But at the beginning chat rooms are all read only. Anyone can browse these, but nobody can write into them.
When administrator (user with admin privileges) opens one of the chat rooms; all clients are now able to write into "open" chat rooms.
Of course when one user writes something down, the other users see the newest comment from him.
Administrator should see all clients in chat room but clients cannot see each other.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
All samples which I have found (WiTap, videos from WWDC,...) are using two devices only. I've installed WiTap on 4 devices. And I can establish connection and working "sample" game with two devices.
Can Bonjour service be used in such way that multiple cients are connected to one "server"?
Any hints are very welcome!
Yes, Bonjour can be used like that: for example Apache on Mac OS X has mod_bonjour so that web browsers can find a web server on the local network. That can mean having one server but multiple browsers: exactly the situation you describe.
One limitation is that the way Bonjour is configured in iOS means that the server and clients need to be on the same local network. It doesn't sound like the situation you describe is compatible with using Bonjour in that way, but then I also don't think you need to. You can use the DNS name of your chat server in the app, so any app can discover the server. The server can also be responsible for discovering which clients are connected and allowing people to find each other (indeed, I guess that's what the chat rooms are for).
This is a good place to start. http://mobileorchard.com/tutorial-networking-and-bonjour-on-iphone/ I have build the same Server and client with the help of chatty. But you will face one problem in iOS5 only, when the iphone will go to sleep mode, the socket connection lost. I am not able to solve this problem. So, looking for help. :)

Prevent from specific app using internet connection

I have a client claims that my app can't connect to internet despite of he has WiFi connection and Safari application, for example, works fine. Is there any way to setup for specific app NOT to connect to the internet? I use in my app simple ASIHTTTPRequest library to make a connections. Maybe it influenced by jailbroken device? Regards!
No, there is no way to do this in via an iOS setting.
However I've had a problem like this with a client, where to Webservice the app connecting to was blocked by there firewall/proxy.
Later the black was lifted but all calls to the webservice where is cached by the proxy give really weird results.

How can I simplify addressing an iOS device using Bonjour?

I would like to make an application for iOS devices that would communicate with a special type of remote device using HTTP POST requests. The problem is that this device would actually act in the role of a client, while iOS device has to be the server accepting the requests. The next problem, host name and port has to be configured statically at the device sending the requests.
While I'm aware it's possible to give it a try using Dynamic DNS services and UPnP/IGD or NAT-PMP to overcome the problem with iOS device being behind the NAT router, I was wondering whether using Bonjour could simplify the problem in some way. I'm quite a newbie in networking so I'm looking for the direction and want to avoid research of Bonjour if it's not going to bring me anything.
Any other idea of how to solve the problem is appreciated as well.
I had a think about this. IMHO you can't guarantee you'll always be able to expose an iOS based service over a WAN (although it's possible) so this isn't practical.
The best solution I suggest is using uPNP to open the device behind a router to the outside world, then have it send an iOS push notification to the iPhone with the details (hostname, ip, port, etc).
The iPhone would then would then have to set up some kind of persistent connection with the firewalled device to receive data.
Bonjour is a good system to discover and connect to services/clients, but only on your local network. I don't think it is a good idea to try it over the internet.

Iphone SDK set static IP

Does anyone know how to setup an IP address in iOs programmatically? It is really easy to do manually, just go to settings and configure the network. However, I want to do this inside a program, to connect to a WiFi network that do not have a DHCP server. Any pointers would help.
Update: This does not seem to be possible. Any suggestion on what I should do instead? The app needs to connect to a network that does not have a DHCP server.
I very much suspect this isn't possible without the use of private APIs, as otherwise it would be possible for a malicious app to effectively "break" the user's network settings.
You can't do it within the Apple guidelines. It's probably a private API call. If you're talking about an app for jailbroken stuff, it might be a different store.

How can I send simple data from an iPhone to another iPhone, or an Android?

I'm just getting started with mobile development, and after considerable searching I'm still confused about sending a message from my iPhone to another or an Android. For instance, in building a simple Tic-Tac-Toe game, if I want to notify the other phone of a move, what is the best way to do so? Wifi, bluetooth, 3G? And how?
Many methods seem to point to communicating through a web server, but I'd rather send them directly from phone to phone if possible. (this is for native apps of course)
If you don't want to have a server (or even if you do! It depends!) it sounds like you will want to use TCP sockets. Apple doesn't have a generic bluetooth API to use with iPhone-to-android communication and you'll have TCP access anyway with 3G. A 3G network connection is very similar to wifi and you should be able to check for the difference as needed with little change to your overall networking code. I'm not sure if bonjour is supported on android, but I bet someone has ported it for similar reasons already, and it is supported in iOS. Apple has a networking section for iOS that you may find informative.
Additionally if you want to stay within the iOS device only realm you could use GameKit to communicate via bluetooth.
Hope that helps some.
The easiest way is to create a web server with an API and the clients poll the server for new moves (or the server pushes the client an update). This is the only way you're going to be able to do it over 3G unless you can figure out the IP addresses of both phones (do phones even keep the same IP address for a long period of time?) and open up sockets between them and let one phone be the server and the other be the client (could cause potential cheating).
WiFi is not always there - by limiting your users' options to areas with access points, you'll lose sales. Not sure about Bluetooth - how prevalent is it on handsets, how much of the API is exposed. Your best bet, IMHO, is 3G. With some kind of a central presence server (Web or otherwise), with optional proxying. Read up on peer-to-peer networking.
As far as i know does the iphone only support incoming messages over push notifications.
This means, that you have to update the information, by requesting it from web services etc.
The bluetooth API of the iphone doesn't support this either.