You see many open SSTP TCP connections and many connections to relay servers when you run the "netstat" command in Groove (914722)

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In Groove 1.1 and earlier versions of Groove, Groove used the recipient's relay server to establish a connection if the initial attempt to establish a direct SSTP TCP connection failed. Then, Groove tried to establish the direct connection again the next time that Groove had data to send.

This retry method was useful if you had a temporary network problem that caused the first try to time out. In this case, you might be able to establish the direct connection later.

However, for users who did not have direct connectivity, this method slowed communications by making ineffective retry attempts. This method also caused problems for users who used a single site. In that case, the firewall at that site interpreted these repeated connection attempts as an attack.

In Groove Workspace 2.x and Groove Virtual Office 3.x, Groove tries to establish connections to all your online contacts when you log on. If Groove does not quickly receive a response for a particular contact, Groove also tries to open a connection to that contact's relay server. Whichever response Groove receives first is the connection that is used.

Similarly, when you enter a workspace, Groove tries to establish connections to each online member of that space. Unless something disrupts the connections, the connections persist until you close Groove.

Note When you close Groove, the connections go into a TCP time-out state. Therefore, you will see them in netstat for another two minutes and 30 seconds.

To see these connections, type netstat -n at a command prompt. You should see one connection for all the following items:

• The relay server
• Each of your online contacts, whether connected to the contact directly or to the relay server for that contact
• Each additional online member of any workspace that you visited since you started Groove
• Each directly accessible online Groove user who has you as a contact
• Each directly accessible online Groove user who has accessed or is accessing a shared space in which you are a member

The connections are established from both directions. Therefore, when you have a connection open to a particular Groove user, that user may have an additional connection open to you.