.NET Remoting

The 89600 VSA application supports programmatic access from both .NET Framework as well as .NET 6.0+ client applications.

Legacy .NET Framework Remoting

The 89600 VSA application always listens for connections from .NET Framework clients since this is the mechanism used by macros, both those running within the application as well as external clients. By default, the application listens on the first available port number greater than or equal to 60189, automatically choosing the lowest available port number possible. In other words, the first instance of 89600 VSA started on a given computer will listen on port 60189. The second instance on the same computer will listen on port 60190, and so on. The port number chosen by the application is written to the boot log. It is possible to override this automatic choice of port number by specifying the -port:<portNumber> command line option, where <portNumber> is a valid integer in the range 1 through 65535 inclusive. If the specified port is busy, the application will still start and will write an error to the boot log and the event log, and it will not be listening for client connections. Note that if a port number is specified on the command line, only that port number is tried. There is no automatic search for an available port.

.NET 6.0+ Remoting

The 89600 VSA will optionally listen for connections from .NET 6.0+ client applications. To turn on this feature, go to the Utilities > Startup Preferences… dialog. In the .NET Client Access Server Startup section of the dialog, select the Enabled radio button. If enabled, the server will listen at a default port number greater than or equal to 59189, automatically choosing the lowest available port number possible. The chosen port number is written to the boot log. It is possible to override this automatic choice of port number by specifying the -serveraddress:<address> command line option, where <address> is of the form host[:portNumber]. Specifying [::] for host will cause the server to listen for requests from any host on the network, whereas specifying localhost will cause it to listen only for requests from clients on the same host. The portNumber is optional; if not specified, the default port number and available port search will be used. If a valid port number in the range 1 through 65535 inclusive is specified, only that port number is tried. If the specified port is busy or no port numbers are available, a message is written to the boot log indicating that connections from .NET 6.0+ clients will not be possible. Note that if the -serveraddress option is specified on the command line, the server is started regardless of the choice indicated on the Utilities->Startup Preferences… dialog.

If both .NET Framework and .NET 6.0+ clients need to be supported, the port number chosen for .NET 6.0+ clients must be less than that used for .NET Framework clients.