Tag Archives: NetTunnel

GUI for NetTunnel

Designing the GUI for NetTunnel put my creativity to the test. I’ve never actually designed a GUI before, but I’ve seen and read a lot about GUI design theory, but theory seems to be fairly pointless for this design process. It was interesting for me to try to translate the idea in my head to the controls given in Visual Studios.

My first attempt ended up like this:

Main Window
Main Window
Services Window
Services Window

This is okay, but not great. Most of those elements are static elements that don’t move even if you resize it. It’s certainly not something I’d feel comfortable working with every day. After getting lots and lots of advice from friends, my second and final GUI design ended up like so:

Main Window
Main Window
Services Window
Services Window

A much cleaner and easier to understand layout. Services can be toggled just by clicking on the ‘service’ menu and then clicking on the appropriate service from the drop-down, or they can be toggled within the service window proper. All the most commonly used items in the gui are put in obvious places, while making sure that everything’s just a few clicks away. Everything resizes and can have the size proportions for it changed.

Now that I know how easy it is to create GUIs, I think I might start using them in future projects while retaining a command line version for power users.

Introducing NetTunnel

As part of my requirements for obtaining my degree, I’m doing a network capstone project this semester.  I’ve always been somewhat fascinated with NATs and specifically, how to break them, so I decided to work on a NAT traversal application. Enter NetTunnel: The purpose of NetTunnel is to provide a means for users with a lack of knowledge of networking or on a restrictive network an easy and simple means to share network services with other users.

Basically, say I’m on a restrictive network (like the dorm network) that does not allow me to host servers with the world due to NAT restrictions. I want to run ventrilo on my machine and have my friends join so I can chat with them. Unaided, this would be impossible, but if my friends and I are running NetTunnel a “hole” will be opened up in the network so they can connect.

It’s a pretty simple concept that’s already done in most modern desktop applications like Skype and peer to peer games. As far as I could tell this idea’s never been extended to a general level like NetTunnel, so there is a definite need for it. The closest application to it I could find is GameRanger, though GameRanger is aimed specifically at games.

I’ve set up a quick static page for NetTunnel at nettunnel.nayruden.com. Keep an eye out for further development, and I’d love to hear feedback about it!