So working in the Fresh Produce industry I get to work with some cool bits of kit.  I've been working for several years with the latest mobile devices which progressively gets smaller and faster.   However at the other end of the spectrum I get to work with some very BIG devices, like weighbridge's and multi million pound grading machines.

So unlike mobile devices something like a weighbridge requires a site visit to maintain.  In addition connecting up a weighbridge to reliably record calibrated readings into a database can be challenging.

The biggest issue with weighbridge's is their physical location.   They are usually out in exposed areas away from any IT.    For the past few installations we have used Microsoft Message Queue (MSMQ) as the perfect way to reliably instruct a P.C connected via a serial port to the weighbridge to take a steady weight reading.   The weight reading is then returned on another queue for later processing.   The P.C application runs as a service and monitoring a message queue is totally network independent and pretty bullet proof.

So MSMQ, great technology in my view forgotten about by the world.    I encourage you to consider it when looking at challenging networking solutions.