Qdea Worldwide Rendezvous
Table Of Contents
What is the Qdea Worldwide Rendezvous?
It's a meeting place for SpeedShare Servers and their clients.
Think of the Internet as a telephone system that changes the number of its
residential customers every day. How do you call someone if their number
has changed? The only way to call someone is to first call directory assistance.
The Qdea Worldwide Rendezvous is like a central telephone directory. It remembers
the telephone numbers of all those residential customers, so that when a
number is needed, it's available.
The Rendezvous connects SpeedShare clients to SpeedShare Servers. It
remembers the TCP/IP addresses (special unique numbers assigned to each
computer on the Internet) of active SpeedShare Servers and provides those
addresses to SpeedShare clients on request.
Return to the Table of Contents
Why is a Rendezvous needed?
When the networking methods which became the basis of the Internet were
first conceived, it was decided to assign a unique number, called a TCP/IP
address, to each computer that is connected to it. This address
can be any number from 1 to 4 billion, and at the time, it seemed to be
incredibly large, because there were only a few thousand computers in the
world.
Today, there are millions of computers connected to the Internet, and the
number of available addresses doesn't look as big as it once did. One of
the ways addresses are conserved is by using dynamic addressing.
Every time you connect to the Internet, your computer needs a TCP/IP address
in order to communicate. Some computers are permanently assigned an address
(called a fixed address), and others, which may be connected only temporarily,
are assigned a temporary address, called a dynamic address.
If your computer connects to the Internet through a dialup connection to
an Internet service provider, it is assigned a dynamic address. The address
is different every time you connect to the Internet. Because of this, it
has been difficult to connect two computers if both of them are connected
through a dialup method.
The Qdea Rendezvous solves this problem by providing a central place for
SpeedShare Servers to "register" their names and current TCP/IP
addresses. When a SpeedShare Server is opened, it registers its TCP/IP address
with the Qdea Rendezvous. When a SpeedShare client wants to connect to that
server, it gest the server's address from the Rendezvous, and then makes
the connection.
This same methodology is used to connect you to Web sites by name. It's
called Domain Name Service. To use it, though, you need a fixed TCP/IP address
and a registration with the InterNIC, an Internet registration service.
Return to the Table of Contents
How do I use the Qdea Rendezvous?
To use the Qdea Rendezvous, a SpeedShare Server must be configured to register
with the Rendezvous, and the SpeedShare client must be set up to make the
connection to the Server via the Rendezvous.
To use the Qdea Rendezvous on the SpeedShare client:
- Use the Edit menu to choose Connections. This is where
you enter and save connection information for different SpeedShare servers.
- Click New. This creates a new connection entry.
- Next to the "Connect via:" label, click Qdea Rendezvous.
- Enter the name of the SpeedShare Server that you want to connect to,
and your user name and password.
- Click OK.
- Use the File menu and Open Connection to choose the new
connection.
When you connect to a server using the Qdea Rendezvous, SpeedShare first
connects to the Rendezvous and asks for the address of the server, by name.
The Rendezvous looks up the server's name and returns the address of the
server.
To use the Qdea Rendezvous with a SpeedShare Server:
- Use the Edit menu to choose Preferences. This is where
you enable the SpeedShare Server to register with the Qdea Rendezvous.
- Make sure the Register with Qdea Rendezvous box is checked.
- Close the window.
When you open the SpeedShare Server, it will automatically connect to the
Qdea Rendezvous and register its TCP/IP address. Users who connect to your
server via the Rendezvous will be informed of your server's address, and
automatically connected to the server.
Whenever the SpeedShare Server starts, it checks in at the Rendezvous. After
it has checked in successfully, an entry is made in the Log.
Return to the Table of Contents
How much does the Rendezvous cost?
Subscriptions to the Qdea Worldwide Rendezvous are $19.95 per year.
A free three-month subscription for access to the Qdea Rendezvous is included with
the purchase of each copy of SpeedShare.
Return to the Table of Contents
Last updated November 14, 1997