Help with windows TCP Port communication

Question

I'm new to understanding how interprocess communication works. I"m working with two applications on my localmachine, a Source Application and a Server Application. The Source application broadcasts files through a configured port on my pc. The Server application listens for those files and exposes them to the internet for users to stream.

I want to remove the Server application from the equation and write a new application to communicate with the Source application.

So far I have my application connected to the port and listening. I am able to receive a message from the port. The message i am receiving appears to be metadata, no file. My assumption is the Server Application sends a response once it has picked up this metadata information to obtain the file. Therefore my application needs to mimic the server application. However I have no idea how to respond to the source application's port.

1) Is there a tool I can use to monitor the communication between the Source application and the server application? I believe this would be a tool to watch for tcp messages? All the tools I come across appear to only look for http messages. Would a packet analyzer be of any use?

2) If I can't view the communication between the source and the server application, what else can I do? Is there a tool I can use to broadcast the meta information I"m receiving on a port, then point the server application to that port and receive a response?

Any resources to help me better understand this intercomunication process would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Use Microsoft Network Monitor 3.3, very easy to use.

Answer 2

Yes, you can use Wireshark. It can monitor any TCP (and mucn more) communication, including local.