There's a chat protocol that I'm recreationally reverse-engineering
(all within legal limits, I assure you).  I'd like to be able to sort
of "sandbox" the normal chat client to analyze its behavior by
intercepting outbound connections from my computer to the chat
server's host and port, and redirecting them to a host and port within
my own network.  That way I can write my own miniature server and send
my own commands to test the client's behavior.

This is on Windows.  I'd be willing to do it on a network-wide basis,
a gateway type deal, (I have a Linksys 4-port Etherfast router to work
with as well, plus a Linux box already on the network), but the most
natural idea would seem to be done locally, with all the stuff on the
one Windows machine.

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Request for Question Clarification by aht-ga on 06 Mar 2004 00:23 PST

metaxy-ga:

Have you already tried defining the URL of the chat server in your
local hosts file, using the local loopback IP address? This will
depend on the ports used by the client and the remote server.

As well, it may be possible to do this with your Linksys router's port
forwarding capabilities, and a dynamic DNS service; however, in order
to determine whether this is a necessary or possible option for you,
can you provide more information about how the client 'phones home',
ie. does it always use the server's name?

Thanks,

aht-ga
Google Answers Researcher

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Clarification of Question by metaxy-ga on 06 Mar 2004 10:02 PST

A hosts file would be a great idea, but I'm pretty sure the client
uses an explicit IP, and the hosts file only lets you re-map hosts to
IPs (not IPs to IPs), I believe.

The client connects to a specific inet IP on port 1755 (never the
server's name, in other words).

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Clarification of Question by metaxy-ga on 06 Mar 2004 22:01 PST

I determined that the client does do a DNS lookup, so via an odd
workaround involving the hosts file I got my goal.  Thanks though.