This files describes the current connection procedure of the
eric-applet in order to ensure a proper configuration of a
remote administration (or demonstration) environment and to 
provide a sensible explanation in case the connection couldn't 
be established.
created: 31/07/2001, Thomas Breitfeld
$Id: applet-connect,v 1.1 2001-07-31 15:49:04 tbr Exp $
======================================================================

1. Basics:
----------
The applet needs currently a direct TCP-IP connection to the 
eric-card. There are two basic possible configurations that 
could prevent a direct connection establishmet:

a) FireWalls: block all connections except for certain port
   numbers. Usually port number 80 is open for http and 443
   for https connections.
   - In those configurations the eric-applet will work as
     it is trying port 80, 22 and 443.

b) Private Networks without Network Address Translation (NAT):
   there is virtually no direct connection to the internet except
   over application protocoll proxies, like http & ftp proxies, 
   mail servers etc.
   - In those configurations the eric applet will currently 
     NOT work.


2. Connection Procedure of the eric-applet:
-------------------------------------------
The eric-applet does not know about the local and remote
network configuration, so it tries to connect using 
different methods. Whenever one method has been succeeded, 
the other methods, obviously, won't be tried anymore.

a) connect remote system on port 443 using SSL.
   This will fail in IE always, as the SSL classses are
   not available.

b) connect remote system on port 22 using plain sockets

c) connect remote system on port 80 using plain sockets

d) give up :-(


3. What can an user do in order to make access possible:
--------------------------------------------------------
NOTHING, unfortunately :-(
- Changing local Browser Proxy Configuration won't help!
- Changing the FireWall Configuration is risky and not 
  advisable!