Selecting a Service Provider for a Client

The service provider is your network connection. Most games use either the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) or modem service provider, but Microsoft® DirectPlay® also provides support for serial and Internetwork Packet Exchange (IPX) connections.

If your user was connected to the session by a lobby client, you can determine the appropriate service provider by examining the DPL_CONNECTION_SETTINGS structure that accompanies the DPL_MSGID_CONNECT message. Otherwise, you may need to determine which service provider to use, perhaps by querying the user. You can use the client object's IDirectPlay8Client::EnumServiceProviders method to enumerate the available service providers. See Getting DirectPlay Data for further discussion.

Once you have selected a service provider, you can then create a DirectPlay address object for your user (a device address). You will use this address to identify your device with a number of DirectPlay methods. See DirectPlay Addressing for a detailed discussion of DirectPlay addresses and address objects.