| Microsoft DirectX 8.1 (Visual Basic) |
The service provider is your network connection. Most games use either the TCP/IP or modem service provider, but Microsoft® DirectPlay® also provides support for serial and IPX connections.
If your user was connected to the session by a lobby client, you can determine the appropriate service provider by examining the DPL_CONNECTION_SETTINGS type that you receive when DirectPlay calls your DirectPlay8LobbyEvent.Connect. Otherwise, you may need to determine which service provider to use, perhaps by querying the user. You can use the client object's DirectPlay8Client.GetServiceProvider method to enumerate the available service providers. See Using DirectPlay Enumerations for further discussion.
Once you have selected a service provider, you can then create a DirectPlay address object for your user (a device address). You will use this address to identify your device with a number of DirectPlay methods. See DirectPlay Addressing for a detailed discussion of DirectPlay addresses and address objects.