Com Internet Services

ComInternetServices is a mechanism that allow MicrosoftCorporation ComponentObjectModel objects to communicate with other objects on a different device, over internet.

See http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dndcom/html/cis.asp

I believe the services were offered at around the time DistributedInternetArchitecture was made available.

With ComInternetServices, it is possible that RemoteProcedureCall over HTTP can be made between machines with WindowsOperatingSystems. It appeared that there is no need to use ExtensibleMarkupLanguage.

DistributedCom (Com over the wire) by itself enabled remote object invocation over the lan, whereas ComInternetServices is deployed using DistributedCom that uses the Tunneling TCP protocol.

In terms of security, I think it is compatible with the SSL (SecureSocketsLayer) technology.

This mechanism is supposedly less resource intensive than the VirtualPrivateNetwork alternative. The other technology available at the time was SoapProtocol based messaging (via SoapToolkit) and again the alternative is much more resource intensive.

Reading Material

CIS (RPC over HTTP) deployment recommendations http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/rpc/rpc/rpc_over_http_deployment_recommendations.asp

Anyone got information to share whether this is still a serious technical alternative in 2004, in light of security bulletin alerts (e.g. MS03-039), and in comparison to other MS technologies such as DotNetRemoting? -- dl

Perhaps my question is partly answered in http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dndotnet/html/webservicesdcom.asp. I note that async comms was mentioned there for WebServices, but who relies on async COM, anyone yet?