Although there are no traditional client or server roles after a connection is established, a computing system MUST initially determine whether to establish an outbound connection or listen for an inbound one. After both sides have received a CONNECTED message from the other, they can mark the connection as established. The following diagram shows the states for a computing system performing the DirectPlay 8 Protocol unsigned connect sequence.

When connected, the protocol behaves identically for both the connecting and listening computing systems.