Using IP address to Communicate with android device

Question

I have the IP address and the mac address of an android device connected to a separate network. And I want to communicate with it using PHP or ajax , the android device isn't pre-registered and it can change. Thus the first contact is established by the device to send the IP and MAC addresses.

I want to be able to send and receive data with the device without his interaction, for instance, I can wait for the android device to contact the server and place an action in PHP like this:

if (isset($_GET['action'])) {
    $PageAction = $_GET['action'];
} else {
    $PageAction = 'NoAction';
}
switch ($PageAction) {
    case "first_action":
           echo "android_action_todo";    
        break;
   
    default:
        echo "No option is selected!";
}

the android device can now send to the URL of the server with /phpfile.php?action=first_action and get the echoed string android_action_todo .

I want to reverse this interaction to be able to send data from the server to the device so that I don't have to wait for the android player to make the first interaction , to be able to get the data in real-time and not have to wait for the android device, it may take seconds, minutes or hours even.

Answer 1

To enable your Android device to respond to an incoming request initiated by the server, you have a few options:

• Have the Android device to be running a webserver, and for it to be exposed on the firewall / NAT router of the network it is on. Challenge: complex, and requires the network to be configured correctly.
• Establish a websocket connection from the Android device to your server, and use this to initiate an operation from the server. Challenge: the device needs to be running the app / webpage.
• Use Android push notifications.