On 23/6/03 13:27, J. Noel Chiappa wrote: > The big problem is incoming connections - how do you set up the mappings they > will need? Wiretapping DNS is ugly, but it doesn't require changing anything > (for existing applications). On the other hand, if you only want to support > incoming connections for new applications, you can define them to include > some sort of MidCom-like setup. Aren't Microsoft already "standardizing" this with their Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) architecture? I'm a little fuzzy on the details, but I believe the concept is that applications that understand this can communicate with the router (the NAPT box in the case of SoHo networks) and request ports to be opened externally and forwarded back to the host. I think Microsoft's NetMeeting conferencing program supports this already and there are a few ADSL modem/routers that implement it. I agree that NAPT is here for a long time and it would be better to work towards controlling it. Jonathan -- Jonathan Hogg Director, Technology Seventh Wave Systems Ltd. 4-14 Tabernacle Street London EC2A 4LU Telephone: +44 20 7074 0423 <http://www.seventh-wave-systems.com/>