Alexa (amazon) calling server to custom Alexa skill webservice - firewall needs opened - alexa

I need to host my own webservice end point, but cannot find what the address is calling my custom Alexa Skill webservice endpoint. I need this to be able to open u the firewall to accept the calls.
Thanks

Well, it is a web service... So you need to open port 443 by default. But I believe your service URL on the Alexa setup UI can contain any custom ports as long as it is an SSL endpoint.
For testing, you can use the Bespoken Tools or nGrok to proxy back to your server.

I found the answer. I needed to now where the call from Amazon is coming from to be able to add it to the firewall pass through. It is coming from *.amazonaws.com

Related

WebSocket server on managed VM not properly exposed trough GAE URL

A normal webserver in a ManagedVM can listen on 0.0.0.0:8080 and properly serve requests dispatched through the GAE URL: http://xx.appspot.com:80
Instead of a normal webserver, try serving websocket connections and things no longer work. No connection gets handled anymore when connecting on: ws://xx.appspot.com:80
This (http://stackoverflow.com/questions/27827752/websocket-support-in-managed-vm) SO topic suggests exposing port 8080 to the Internet from the GCE network settings and using the IP of the GCE instance directly. That works indeed, but is not helpful as the IP changes on every new deployment.
If this is indeed the way to go, then it's not documented anywhere.
The only clue I've seen is that a Google employee also uses IP discovery to connect to the right GCE instance that hosts a websocket server:
https://github.com/proppy/cacophon/blob/master/frontend/api/controllers/DiscoveryController.js
I'm hoping for a proper fix that doesn't require me to use introspection for gather IPs of the VM instances hosting websocket servers.
With reference to Google issue tracker,
Since this thread was opened more than two years ago, I would like to check with you that if you're still hoping for the fix/FR about WebSocket server on Flex not properly exposed through GAE ULR?
for more update you can check Google issue tracker

Silverlight RIA Services encryption issue

I have a silverlight application with classic User Login process.My problem is that when I listening the browser with Fiddler application,i see request uris clearly which means:
myriaserviceurl/binary/?username=asd&password=12345
this isnt secure isnt it?
Do RIA Services have an encryption? How can i encrypt data between client and server?
Thx your answers.
You need to setup SSL in your hosting site, then change the Authentication Domain Service's attribute like following.
[EnableClientAccess(RequiresSecureEndpoint = true)]
public class AuthenticationService : AuthenticationBase<User> { }
With that attribute, any client accessing that service will access it over HTTPS. If the hosting site doesn't have HTTPS enabled, i.e. SSL is not set up, then clients would not be able to access it.
The hard part is setting up SSL for your hosting site, but it isn't too hard.
You can follow this link for further explanation.
Their is packet and transport encryption - as you are using HTTP - I think you need transport to avoid the URL being seen. In Silverlight, that means SSL
But then again, I'm still getting my footing on all this... :)

Is there a way to configure a custom domain so that it forwards XMPP messages to an App Engine app?

App Engine only allows you to use these formats for XMPP addresses:
app-id#appspot.com
anything#app-id.appspotchat.com
Is there be a way to configure a custom domain so that it forwards XMPP messages to one of these address formats.
For example, if my domain is called myxmpp.com, I could give that out to users as my application's JID and then forward any user chat messages received there directly to myxmpp#appspot.com (assuming myxmpp is the app-id)?
I'm fairly sure that, to do this, you would need a custom XMPP server serving for your domain. I'm also fairly sure that you'd have to write said server yourself.
This site http://www.prosody.im/doc/dns explains what you need to configure in your DNS to do this.

Outlook Mobile Service Configuration Issue

I am working on writing a OMS implementation. I have verified that service is compliant with the service and schema definitions.
When trying to set up the account in Outlook 2007 to test the service, it allows me to use an https address, but not an http address.
According to the documentation (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb277363.aspx) "The URL of the OMS Web service can be either http or https, but it is https if not otherwise specified"
I have not been able to find any doucmentation that would explain why Outlook will not even let me try to do anything in the wizard if the service url does not start with https.
The error that it returns when a http address is entered is:
The web service address is incorrect or corrupted. Check the web service address or contact your administrator
I have also tried creating a temporary cert on my local machine to test the service, but outlook is rejecting the cert because it is not valid.
Is there any way to test the service or run it over http?
You are not alone in seeing this error, we've also come across this issue, one of the 3! comments on the msdn documentation also reports an issue with using http (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/community/history/bb277363.aspx?id=2)
Apart from exposing your service as https there doesn't seem to be a way around this :(
Connection Security
To protect the information as it is
transferred over the Internet, OMS Web
services are required to support SSL
(Secure Socket Layer) encryption. SSL
can be used to establish more secure
connections on untrusted networks,
such as the Internet. SSL enables
encryption and decryption of messages
exchanged between client and server,
thereby helping to protect messages
from being read during transfer.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb277361(v=office.12).aspx#OfficeOutlook2007OMSMobileServicesGuidelinesPt1_CommunicationProtocols

Connecting to device behind firewall

I have a wpf app that needs to communicate(exchange data) with a custom designed device (we can modify the code for the device). Do I have any options to connect to the device if it is behind a firewall via http? I was hoping there would be a method where the admin would not have to forward any specific ports or do anything on his end. I assume the issue is how would I address the device from my app. I know SOAP over SMTP is one option. Is another option where the device could chatter out to my application via http?
This problem is solved by relay services like Yaler or My-devices (I did not test this last one).
UPNP is supported by some firewalls to simplify this. Otherwise you are usually stuck opening ports on the firewall manually or using some 3rd party proxy server for a rendezvous server.
A lot of firewalls are setup to allow access on port 80 (HTTP) otherwise the users wouldn't be able to browse web sites on the internet. You can try and see if port 80 is open to traffic. If you can modify the code for both the device and the client you can use port 80 to communicate with your own protocol - you don't necessarily need to use HTTP.
Any kind of RESTful architecture over http will do it. If this is the best option for you depends on what APIs / libraries are available on your custom device.

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