Flash Socket connection from SWF hosted by a browser - actionscript-3

Question

I am attempting to use TCP Socket from Flash ActionScript. I am using a standard example provided by Adobe. Here is the code:
// Load policy file from remote server.
Security.loadPolicyFile("http://" + serverURL + "/crossdomain.xml");
// Attempt to connect to remote socket server.
try {
msg("Trying to connect to " + serverURL + ":" + portNumber + "\n");
socket.connect(serverURL, portNumber);
} catch (error:Error) {
/*
Unable to connect to remote server, display error
message and close connection.
*/
msg(error.message + "\n");
socket.close();
}
My crossdomain.xml file located on port 80:
<cross-domain-policy xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="http://www.adobe.com/xml/schemas/PolicyFileSocket.xsd">
<allow-access-from domain="*" to-ports="*"/>
</cross-domain-policy>
When I load application, I see in my inspector that it accesses the policy file successfully. However Event.CONNECT is never called. I have tried opening various different ports on various domains including same domain with no luck. Tried different policy files.
What am I missing?

Answer 1

If the allowscriptaccess is false you won't be able to bypass that so what you are missing is the adobe policy server.
http://vvowproject.googlecode.com/svn-history/r41/trunk/server/flashpolicyd.py
On the server open port 843 then use this command
sudo ./flashpolicyd.py --file=crossdomain.xml --port=843
here is the crossdomain.xml
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE cross-domain-policy SYSTEM
"http://www.adobe.com/xml/dtds/cross-domain-policy.dtd">
<cross-domain-policy>
<site-control permitted-cross-domain-policies="master-only"/>
<allow-access-from domain="*"/>
<allow-http-request-headers-from domain="*" headers="SOAPAction"/>
</cross-domain-policy>
This will definitely work, i tried it myself with your example.

Answer 2

This is what I know from using TCP/IP Sockets and XML. I've set up a Ruby server with a Flash client successfully, but want to know more about chat servers. I hope some of this is helpful.
You need a Daemon with Flash AS3. Here's the documentation.
http://livedocs.adobe.com/flash/9.0/main/wwhelp/wwhimpl/common/html/wwhelp.htm?context=LiveDocs_Parts&file=00000318.html
alt text http://www.ashcraftband.com/myspace/videodnd/daemonLil.jpg
To create a socket connection, you must create a server-side application to wait for the socket connection request and send a response to the SWF file. This type of server-side application can be written in a programming language such as Java, Python, or Perl. To use the XMLSocket class, the server computer must run a daemon that understands the protocol used by the XMLSocket class. The protocol is described in the following list:
• XML messages are sent over a full-duplex TCP/IP stream socket connection.
• Each XML message is a complete XML document, terminated by a zero (0) byte.
• An unlimited number of XML messages can be sent and received over a single XMLSocket connection.
Understanding the security changes in Flash Player 10
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flashplayer/articles/fplayer10_security_changes_02.html
XML SECURITY POLICY
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE cross-domain-policy SYSTEM
"http://www.adobe.com/xml/dtds/cross-domain-policy.dtd">
<cross-domain-policy>
<site-control permitted-cross-domain-policies="master-only"/>
<allow-access-from domain="*"/>
<allow-http-request-headers-from domain="*" headers="SOAPAction"/>
</cross-domain-policy>
FLASH CLIENT
Remember to set Publish Settings to Access Network Only.
SERVER
Open a separate port for security policy, and keep it running in the background.