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I am building a mobile device that needs to send realtime information to other devices. I have considered XMPP but I do not have a server, so the communication must be only between the devices.

Is there a way to communicate using XMPP between mobile devices without a server (Or using the mobile devices as servers)?

Is Sockets a good idea ? i.e. Having a ServerSocket and client Socket and communicating this way.

Is there a smarter way? I have heard of jWebSocket but I dont really know how it works or if it's worth it.

EDIT

The process is as follows:

  1. I'm using Parse as a server/backend http://parse.com
  2. When the user runs the app, a user list is retrieved from the parse server
  3. The user then has (Could have) the ip of other clients and then attempt to communicate with them.

Problems
1. Parse does not support a XMPP server or other type of servers

fernandohur
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    In general, sockets are the answer... but not the whole answer. The whole story is rather long. And for peer discovery, you'll probably need a server anyway. P2P discovery a-la Zeroconf only works over WiFi. – Seva Alekseyev Aug 21 '12 at 17:20
  • Ok so peer discovery is not necesary. Actually there is a server a very simple one that logs in the user and gives him the peer's adresses, ids, etc. but what I'm saying is I cant host a XMPP Server. – fernandohur Aug 21 '12 at 17:29
  • Apply [the rubber duck principle](http://www.rubberduckdebugging.com/): explain to the duck how will mobile devices that are not on the same WiFi network find out about one another. – Seva Alekseyev Aug 21 '12 at 18:43
  • Ok so maby I have not been clear: I will EDIT my question so you it becomes clearer. – fernandohur Aug 22 '12 at 11:51

1 Answers1

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You might look at using an IRC client library like http://jerklib.wikia.com/wiki/JerkLib_Wiki. This way you can use a public IRC server to communicate with your other devices...

I've not used it, but I did bookmark it for further reading because I thought it a novel concept ...

I hope it helps...

Chris
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