For debugging purposes, I just created user interfaces so I could type in the messages on the Loki client. I also added the user interface to Logan, so you could view the messages coming through. At first my server program received the messages. But it could not extract out the text I was passing through. What gives?
Well I am just using old C strings. I it character data buried in the datagram. I even put a unique string of characters to help me easily locate the beginning of my message. The only problem was that I was using C strings to parse the contents of the message. Wouldn't you know it? There were a bunch of zeros buried in the headers.
Fine. So I skip over the ICMP header. The thing still does not work. Wait a minute. By the time the transmission gets to the server, it also has an IP header as well. Duh. Once I skip over all layers of the header, I am in business. I can transfer messages to and from my programs at will.
I might run one more test so see how far apart these programs can be and still operate. Same LAN? Anywhere on the Internet? I guess it all depends on if the middlemen pass the ICMP messages through. At this point, it should be a trivial exercise to replace my "hello" messages with commands to do stuff on the server computer.
