How do I choose between MSMQ, named pipes, and mailslots ???

[Valerie Hough]

Hi,
I am writing an MFC app that has several processes running on several
machines, one of them a Windows NT Server PDC, the others simply members
of the domain.

- My app involves a message volume of approximately 5-25 messages per
second), but it all may be done asynchronously (in fact I need NOT to
have the sender blocked while the message is being transmitted).

- the actual messages themselves will be quite small (50-300 bytes on
avg)

- I have no particular need for DTC

- I do NOT need to have current queue information saved to disk in case
of failure (as I understand it MSMQ provides this).

- I would like to set up priority based receiving, but I think this
could be achieved by multiple threads of differing priorities
irrespective of which method I choose

- I need to be able to deliver my high priority messages as quickly as
possible, but speed is NOT important to my low priority messages

Mailslots are certainly the simplest; I have already got a working
prototype, but how reliable are they and what are the performance
considerations? If I get a send failure, is there any possible recovery
other than restarting one or more tasks ?

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

If MSMQ is a good choice, where can I find adequate documentation to
implement it (right from any layered software I need to install down to
what .h files I include in my .cpp files and what library(ies) to link
with) ? As usual, a working sample would be great!

Thank you in advance,
Barney Lappin