You might checkout the BlitzPlay library for some general info: http://www.blitzcoder.com/blitzplay
Otherwise a basic overview is that to connect over the internet you'll need a server that's able to get the relevant traffic (TCP and whatever port(s) you've chosen) and then your client code will probably need to connect to the server using TCP.
TCP establishes a session or connection, which UDP does not, and this enables you to work with clients using a variety of network connections. Like was mentioned above, users might have private IP addresses hidden behind firewalls and/or NAT boxes, yet they can still request information from your publicly available server.
If I'm wrong on using UDP over the internet, can someone please explain how it works?
And Ping is an odd protocol, not really UDP or TCP but anyway it's often blocked by firewalls. So I'd expect that you couldn't ping but could hit your buddy's machine using OpenTCPStream(ADSLip,port), but that he could not connect to you until you setup the proper port-forwarding rules.
And most people have dynamic IP addresses (in the States) and so they may change over time. I've heard of people keeping the same IP for years though, as long as they keep their cable or DSL modems on most of the time. The DHCP lease on an address is about a week on Comcast cable.
Good luck!
Otherwise a basic overview is that to connect over the internet you'll need a server that's able to get the relevant traffic (TCP and whatever port(s) you've chosen) and then your client code will probably need to connect to the server using TCP.
TCP establishes a session or connection, which UDP does not, and this enables you to work with clients using a variety of network connections. Like was mentioned above, users might have private IP addresses hidden behind firewalls and/or NAT boxes, yet they can still request information from your publicly available server.
If I'm wrong on using UDP over the internet, can someone please explain how it works?
And Ping is an odd protocol, not really UDP or TCP but anyway it's often blocked by firewalls. So I'd expect that you couldn't ping but could hit your buddy's machine using OpenTCPStream(ADSLip,port), but that he could not connect to you until you setup the proper port-forwarding rules.
And most people have dynamic IP addresses (in the States) and so they may change over time. I've heard of people keeping the same IP for years though, as long as they keep their cable or DSL modems on most of the time. The DHCP lease on an address is about a week on Comcast cable.
Good luck!