This chapter explains the classes available in JavaGroups that will be used by applications to build reliable group communication applications. The focus is on creating and using channels. Also, the main building blocks will be discussed. For users who want to configure their own protocol stack, an overview of the protocol layers will be given (the specification of all available protocols is given in the appendix). Finally, some problems with regard to firewalls and IP multicasting are discussed.
Information in this document may not be up-to-date, but the nature of the classes in the JavaGroups toolkit described here is the same. For the most up-to-date information refer to the Javadoc-generated documentation in directory JavaGroups/doc.