Remote connection using SAProuter and Service Connector

Question

Hello everyone!
What I am trying to do is to connect to an SAP system of a client of ours.
This is what I have found out and what works -
I found out that for such a scenario a SAProuter and the Service Connector somewhow come into play. I worked with the SAProuter and could connect to a test IDES system in our company with the following router string -
/H/<localsystem_where_SAProuter_is_running>/H/<IP_of_IDES>/S/3200
This basically means that I would have to connect my SAProuter with the client's SAProuter and the client router would then pass on my connection to their SAP system like this -
/H/<mySAProuter>/H/<clientSAProuter>/S/<port_client_SAProuter>/W/<client_password_if_specified>
When this connection is established, I can access the client's SAP system through a SAPGui (Windows or Java) from my side using the connection string as specified above.
If this works, why do I need a service connector? What would it's function be?
Another question being - I have been told that a connection can also be established by using a connection from us to SAP and then from SAP to the client's SAP system (this has been suggested by the client). Where does this scenario fit in? If it is indeed possible, what do I need to do to make such a connection work?
I would appreciate it if someone answers who has actually worked on such a situation.
Bye!
Sameer

Answer 1

The service connector is used by SAP to automatically open your systems for customer messages; it's not relevant in the scenario you describe.
You can't use SAP's servers as a "stepping stone" to get to another customer's system.... you can directly link the two organizations by allowing the connections through both firewalls to specific saprouters at each end though:
CustA <> saprouter <> firewall <>  INTERNET <> firewall <> saprouter <> CustB
It requires coordination between both customers and the use of saprouter strings in the SAPGUI configuration, as you've described.
Rich