Design for VC++ network application
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Hi All, I am currently making a VC++(MFC) app which will act as additional login screen. It will come up when user logs in to Windows XP machine and user has to use a username/pwd combination which will be given to him. The business idea is for a Cyber Cafe where users login with their account details, and they can browse till they have "browsing time" in their accounts. Once they logout or their "browse time" is over, the login screen again appears facilitating the next user to login with his credentials. I have created the MFC login screen(starting it as a windows service) and when user logs in successfully, I am placing the MFC program in the systray where user can login and see his remaining time, etc. What I wanted from community is couple of design suggestions - Q1. Is the idea of placing the app in the systray appropriate ? Can you advise some other approach which could come handy ? Q2. Also, I am looking forward to have the authentication being done via a machine(a server) - which has all authentication info as well as browse time information stored in it. I was looking fwd to use Winsock API for this purpose. The client application(installed on all machines) will contact server app in following cases - 1) while logging in - to get authentication info, browse time info. 2) while logging out - to record time spent in browsing. Is this network design appropriate - using client/server architecture and winsock API or can their be any improvements in the design ? Thanks for the help! Regards Cage