Very Computer

        I'm currently designing a system where (up to) 8 seperate
processes (all same, just attached to different serial lines) need to
send data to a socket for status/diagnostics/etc. information.

        Basically I've got 8 processes which monitor the serial
connections for data. When data appears they then receive the
information (electronic orders), drop the files onto a network share
drive, the main machine then processes the files, they're then dropped
back into another network share drive and the seperate processes send
the files back to their respective senders.

        The need I have is to be able to monitor the traffic/status
remotely. My idea is to use a Java application sitting on the remote
PC(s) which monitor a specific port of the comms. machine to
receive/show the information.

        Now I've never done this before, but what I want to do is have
only 1 socket open, and for all information to go down this socket for
the Java app. to receive and display (each packet will contain an ID
so the information is displayed correctly at the other end).

        So basically I need to know the following;-

        Can several processes all open the same socket on the host PC?

        If yes, then are there any issues I should be aware of ?

        If no, then should I use IPC (inter process control) to send
all information to a control process which then controls the socket ?

        or am I better having seperate sockets for each process ?

Any help/hints/pointers gratefully received
Regards
Neil E.
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I've been doing something along these lines myself, lately. In your
case I would have a server on the machine whose processes you want to
monitor. Use IPC Message Queues to send it the status info from your
processes.

In my app I used UDP to connect the observers [your java progs] to the
server. The server keeps a list of the host and port of each observer,
and forwards the messages on to each.

Brenton