Win32 System Services: The Heart of Windows® 98 and Windows® 2000

8.5. Named Pipe Client/Server Systems

If you need to create a client/server system in Windows, where multiple clients connect to a single server somewhere on the network, you have three choices. You can use RPCs, TCP communications, or named pipes. RPCs (see Chapter 9) are easier to use in many cases because they handle all of the connection problems for you. Many of the remote services offered by Windows 2000 are implemented with RPCs. There are certain cases, however, where named pipes are more appropriate. For example, if you need to stream 10 megabytes of data across the network, then a named pipe is appropriate. It might also be suitable to create a hybrid system, where an RPC server sets up the connection and then a point-to-point named ...