I would like to access/read a text file that resides on a remote windows server. The local computer and the remote server are not connected to each other i.e. they are not part of a network or under a domain. Is there any possible way, using C#, to access and read the contents of that text file?
P.S.: The remote server requires a username and a password to log on to it. I'm the server admin and thereby I am aware of those credentials.
Thank you in advance!
C# is a programming language. You could implement a Windows service application that will listen to connections and then dump the contents of anything you'd like. There is nothing natively implemented in C#, however, that will allow you to immediately do what you're asking.
As long as both machines have internet access, and the network they're on will allow outside connections past the firewall, there are some examples online that will get you heading in the right direction. Example.
Be wary, however, that if you implement your own server application that will host files over the internet, you will have to also implement your own credential checking mechanism. Even if your server requires authentication, that will have no affect on your server application.
Hello and thanks for the replies! I have exposed the contents of the remote text file using a RESTful service. The local computer can now use the data stored in that text file by just navigating to the url where the service output is returned.
Related
I was thinking to dump an XML file generated from server to a random client requesting that. The problem is that I have to damp that file in a specific folder of clients (C:/Application/POSMachine/WaitingXML), for there is another application listening to that folder.
My approach:
A simple patch (to change chrome download address to the specific desired path)
Installing windows service/local-api for those clients who need this feature, and passing server-side generated XML to clients installed service/api, I am assuming I will get clients IP-address from the server and hit the service hosted in clients.
Request.GetOwinContext().Request.RemoteIpAddress
Any comments and better implementation is appreciated.
It would be a security risk to allow a website to download a file to an arbitrary location (that would mean a malicious website could just download a new svchost.exe to C:\Windows\System32 or what not)
Also your idea with running a service would not work in all cases, since your clients will most probably be behind a modem/router/NAT switch (or multiple). All these devices would have to be configured for port forwarding. So, you really need an 'client-outbound' connection (like a browser does).
I would implement a client program which can contact your server and download the file with a System.Net.WebRequest and save to the specific location. Another possibility might be to add a System.Windows.Forms.WebBrowser control and handle the FileDownload event. However, your question does not contain enough information to more specific (how does the client chose a file to download)
I am developing a windows form program in C# .Net and I need it to read and write files from/to a folder on a computer (let's name the computer SERVER_PC) on the wireless network which connects only 5 PCs. Basically, users should not even know about the files outside my program. I mean they shouldn't' read or write files to SERVER_PC directly. only the program should be able to connect to that folder on SERVER_PC and open the files for them.
DO I need to create a home group just for this purpose? Is this a secure way of handling it? Can I grant (read, write) permissions only to my program?
I am running windows 7 on all network PCs
(NOTE: We don't want to use domain controller for this.)
I really appreciate your help. thanks a lot
You could have a server app and a client app that transfer files using tcp sockets.
The server could provide a list of filenames to the clients. The clients could then request a file or files, the server then sends them then the user could save them back effectively sending them back to the server app which would then save them.
You could then restrict access to the folders to the user the server app runs under.
You would need to handle issues with more than one person working with a file though, unless you gave each user their own folder.
if you wanted to get more secure, you could encrypt the streams being sent between tcp end points.
Overview
C# File - Users PC
PHP Server - Hosts Webpages for application
Server and Users PC on local network
I have a c# file that reads weight from a USB scale. How would I trigger this file to run so it feeds into my program. The problem is I am using PHP to host our webpage/application so its not running client side and the scale is not hooked up to the server but to the clients PC.
The C# script would have to be on the clients in order to read the scale so how would I trigger this to happen?
Is this even possible and if not what would be a better way?
Important Edit
I was able to run the Scale Script (C#) when I wanted by having PHP and C# use TCP sockets.
The C# would listen for PHP to send something and when it did it would read the scale and send this information back to PHP becuase PHP was listening for a response. Mixed in with a little Ajax and it updates in the web browser.
Gave Chris Credit because he was the most helpful with answering my questions
It sounds like what you really want is for the client application to submit the data to the website itself, and the most suitable approach is probably to expose a web service from your server.
This service should accept weight data, along with some sort of customer key or whatever, to correlate the records correctly on the server side. I've never created a web service in PHP personally, so I can't give any advice on the implementation of that, but it is fairly trivial to hook a C# client app up to a web service once you've exposed its metadata (assuming you use SOAP).
you can't start C# application from a web page in a way that'll work in every browser every time. BUT, you can have some workarounds:
Use ActiveX component that read the data in the client and upload it to the server. the biggest cons is that it'll only work in Internet Explorer
use Silverlight client application that runs on elevated mode (v4) and upload the data to your server.
refer your clients to download application (the C# application you wrote about) and run it - this application will upload the data to your server.
hope this helps.
C# isn't a scripting language, it's a language that compiles into executable binaries or libraries. You won't be able to execute C# code on the client's computer via a website because C# code needs to be compiled before it can run.
Presumably what you really want is for your compiled C# binary to be executed on the client's machine via your website. You won't be able to easily do that. There are a lot of security measures in place to prevent browsers from running programs on your computer. There may be ways to hack around these security measures by using plugins (such as ActiveX), but it's not something that will be a one-liner.
Edit: I think you need to step back and think about what you're trying to do in a broad sense. You're trying to create a website that can read information from a user's USB port. This is the type of thing that browsers are designed to prevent, and for good reason. I wouldn't want random websites to be able to access peripheral hardware without my explicit permission. If you want this website to function the way you're expecting, you're going to have to seriously think about the security implications. You'll need some kind of client-side code (ActiveX, Silverlight, ...), and the user will need to explicitly give permission to for this all to happen. It won't be easy, and it won't be automatic. And I'm damn glad that's true.
Full edit:
The scenario is that after uploading the file to the server via a secured web service, I'd like to save/create a copy of that file to another server in a LAN or another network.
I'd like to know what possible ways I could use to programmatically copy/create the backup of the file uploaded to the backup server (saving the file to the database would be the last option probably).
Here are a few details:
Files are of different types and sizes mostly text, documents and images that would be around a few KB to a couple of MB's.
Database is SQL Server 2008 R2 and the only way to connect to it is via calls to a secured WCF service.
Servers can be in the same LAN or on separate networks (depends on the client requesting).
The 2nd server is a redundant server and is using the 1st one as it's backup and vice versa.
Took me a while to find this post. Just map the drive to the backup server's shared folder and implement WindowsImpersonationContext.
How to Impersonate a user in managed code?
haven't seen security problems on this and doesn't need to mess with the HTTP/certificates.
We have a C# windows application that needs to be able to connect to a server on a network, download and save a file to a specified location.
We can not use a web service as we can not assume that our clients will have IIS on their server.
The way that I am considering doing it is to FTP onto the server and download the file. I can write the code to connect to the server and located the file but I have 2 questions.
Is there a way of using the windows credentials to FTP on to the remote server? (I understand that I cannot directly get the user's password).
Is there a better way of getting the file from a server other than ftp-ing on to it?
Thanks for the advice.
I'm assuming that a network share isn't an option (perhaps an external site etc).
Note that IIS isn't the only way of hosting a web-service. With WCF, you can use a console exe or a windows service to host the WCF service, which would allow you to run WCF on the server without any mention of IIS. See here. Then all you need is line-of-sight to the server, and some code that returns the file (or chunks of it, or a stream of it).
Depending on the size of the file (e.g. if it is less than 4MB) - you might consider leveraging a public MSMQ mechanism.