  Seeking IP Port Redirection? 
 The Question is:
 
We are trying to standardize our IP socket port numbers across the various
 platforms and network in our architecture. But our customer base is so large
 and literally global that we are having trouble getting in touch with some of
 the organizations to let
them know of the port changes for the servers they connect to. We are commited
 to a change date and once the changes are made, the old port numbers will no
 longer be valid. The question is, is there any way to have in-bound connection
 requests on a given
port (for instance 2000) be "routed" or translated so that they go to the
 new/correct port (say 4000)? This would keep us from denying service to folks
 until we can get the word to them. Is there a driver level change? Or a
 programmable interface or possi
bly flags on socket creation? Help?
 
Thanks,
John Weed
 
 The Answer is :
 
  If you have access to the client code, the most likely approach would
  involve the use of portmapper -- this would be a reasonable long-term
  strategy, since network reorganizations such as your current one are
  often on-going and repeated over time; these are seldom single events.
  (Portmapper also gets you out of the business of tracking the ports.)
 
  OpenVMS and TCP/IP Services do not particularly provide a redirection
  mechanism.
 
  Depending on the application, you can potentially operate on multiple
  ports in parallel, or you could potentially code a route-through
  application to the target port -- the port would have to be sensitive
  to considerations such as the use of UDP or TCP.  (This latter approach
  also has the obvious potential to include the logging and the reporting
  of accesses made to these "outdated" ports.)
 
 Answer written or last revised on  16-AUG-2001 
