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The Ice run time establishes connections automatically and transparently as a side effect of using proxies. There are well-defined rules that determine when a new connection is established. If necessary, you can influence connection management activities.

Connection management becomes increasingly important as network environments grow more complex. In particular, if you need to make callbacks from a server to a client through a firewall, you must use a bidirectional connection. In most cases, you can use a Glacier2 router to automatically take advantage of bidirectional connections. However, the Ice run time also provides direct access to connections, allowing you to explicitly control establishment and closure of both unidirectional and bidirectional connections.

Most Ice applications benefit from active connection management and transparent connection establishment and thus need not concern themselves with the details of connections. Not all Ice applications can be so fortunate, and for those applications Ice provides convenient access to connections that enables developers to address the realities of today's deployment environments.

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