This is the Title of the Book, eMatter Edition
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Chapter 1: Introducing the Flash Communication Server
movie. When each movie needs to look up information unique to it, a direct connec-
tion to an application server is usually a better approach.
Firewalls and Security
Some corporate firewalls and proxy servers with restrictive access rules make it
impossible to establish a persistent TCP/RTMP connection to a FlashCom Server.
Some corporate IT staffs may open access to remote FlashCom Servers, but others
will not. When corporate web access is permitted but TCP/RTMP connections are
not allowed, FlashCom provides a tunneling feature that allows Flash and FlashCom
to send and receive RTMP over HTTP. When tunneling is employed, the Flash
Player works with the user’s browser to poll the communication server instead of
establishing a direct Player-to-server TCP connection. When RTMP is tunneled, it is
known as RTMPT. As of this writing, neither the Flash Player nor FlashCom directly
supports SSL. However, encryption is an option when using tunneling, because
browsers support SSL and an SSL proxy can be used with the server. For more infor-
mation, see the article Tunneling Flash Communications Through Firewalls and Proxy
Servers at:
http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/mx/flashcom/articles/firewalls_proxy.html
Getting Started
A free development edition of the Flash Communication Server is available from
Macromedia. You can find more information on downloading it along with other
licensing options at Macromedia’s web site:
http://www.macromedia.com/software/flashcom
Figure 1-5. Both the Flash client and FlashCom can access application servers
Flash client
Flash Remoting
Application server
Flash Communication
Server
RTMP
HTTP/AMF
HTTP/AMF
JDBC or ODBC LDAP
Database server Directory server
This is the Title of the Book, eMatter Edition
Copyright © 2007 O’Reilly & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved.
Getting Started
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To install FlashCom:
1. Follow the link from the preceding URL to download the free developer edition
or go directly to:
http://www.macromedia.com/cfusion/tdrc/index.cfm?product=flashcom
2. Once you install FlashCom, you should download the most recent updater from
http://www.macromedia.com/support/flashcom/downloads_updaters.html and
install it. (Updaters are not normally added to the installation files of the most
recent release, so if an updater is available for the most recent release, you
should download and install it.)
3. Finally, download the most recent Flash communication components and run
the installation program to install them in the Flash authoring environment. Sep-
arate Windows or Macintosh component updates are also available at:
http://www.macromedia.com/support/flashcom/downloads_updaters.html
FlashCom runs on Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2000, Windows NT
Server SP6 or later, and RedHat Linux. The complete system requirements and sup-
ported servers are listed at:
http://www.macromedia.com/software/flashcom/productinfo/systemreqs
Detailed documentation about the server including installation instructions is avail-
able from Macromedia at:
http://www.macromedia.com/support/flashcom/documentation.html
See the Installing Flash Communication Server and Managing Flash Communication
Server documents at the preceding URL. However, for a simple test and develop-
ment server, you can simply run the installer, supply an initial administrative user-
name and password, and then run the samples to make sure the server is working.
You do not need to provide a serial number. On Windows, the installer is named
FlashComInstaller.exe and you can simply run it. Under Linux, you must unzip and
then untar the installation file, cd, to the installation_directory and type:
./installFCS
The default installation includes applications that can be used by any-
one who can connect to your computer. It is a good idea to protect a
test development server behind some type of firewall. See Chapters 10
and 18 for important information about securing your FlashCom
Server installation.
By default, the FlashCom Server listens for TCP connections on port 1935. Ideally,
you should allow access to that port only from other machines under your control. If
the machine is not behind a firewall, you should at least make sure the server accepts

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