NullReferenceException in C# when dealing with Streams? - c#

So, I'm pretty new to all this network programming, and I have a few questions...
I'm building a client-server chat application, wherein the server is running, the client(s) connect(s) to the server, and then when a client sends a message to the server, the server relays it to all the clients. The server is a console application, and the client is a Windows Form Application.
The error I'm getting is in my client, at the very top of my form, I have a textbox to take in a user's name and a button to "submit" it and connect to the server with that username.
Anyways, this is my button connect code:
private void btnConnect_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
readData = "Connecting to chat server...";
msg();
try
{
sck_client.Connect("127.0.0.1", 8888);
sw = new StreamWriter(sck_client.GetStream());
string toSend = txtUsername.Text;
sw.Write(toSend);
sw.Flush();
chatThread = new Thread(GetMessages);
chatThread.Start();
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
readData = ex.ToString();
msg();
}
}
msg() quite simply takes the value in readData and prints it to the screen (in a richtextbox). sw is a streamwriter that has been declared publicly, outside of the method, so is sck_client (a TcpClient) and chatThread (a Thread).
Basically, the issue is, when I run my program and try to connect, it throws Exception ex, as though it cannot connect. It throws a NullReferenceException with the text:
System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance
of an object. at Chat_Client.Main.btnConnect_Click(Object sender,
EventArgs e) in filepath\Chat_Client\Main.cs:line36
That occurs even when my server is running and listening to port 8888. So, what should I do to fix it?
If you need any more of my code to solve the problem, let me know in a comment and I'll post it.
To show where the code is instantiated:
public partial class Main : Form // new class for the form itself
{
// all of these are declared outside any method:
TcpClient sck_client = default(TcpClient);
Thread chatThread = default(Thread);
string readData = null;
StreamWriter sw = default(StreamWriter);
StreamReader sr = default(StreamReader);
...

Ok, this line is your problem:
TcpClient sck_client = default(TcpClient);
specifically:
default(TcpClient);
default() will return the default value for a given type. If the type is a reference type (eg. class), then it will return null. If the type is a value type (eg. int) then it will attempt to set it to 0.
The default keyword does NOT create a new instance of the the class for you, you need to the use the new keyword for that.
I would seriously be reading this: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/fa0ab757.aspx

TcpClient sck_client = default(TcpClient);
...
sck_client.Connect("127.0.0.1", 8888);
at some point, you will need to give it a value other than null (the default for TcpClient is null). Also, you probably don't need a StreamWriter just to send a string - I'd look at using Encoding (to get the bytes; typically UTF8), and a length-prefix of the size (in bytes).

Related

When I send a command to server from client , the client receives the response only if the request is sent twice

I am trying to send commands to the server , like for example requesting the server to send back the list of files in it's directory. The problem is that when I send the "list" command to the server, I have to send it twice in order for the server to send back the list of files to the client. I am sure that the server receives the command in both times as on the server side I print the result that is supposed to be sent to the client on the console and it appears both times.
I am using C# and TCPListeners to listen for incoming responses or commands, and TCPClient to send responses or commands between the server and the client.
The client code
private TcpListener tcpListener = new TcpListener(9090);
private void button3_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Byte[] bytesToSend = ASCIIEncoding.ASCII.GetBytes("list");
try
{
TcpClient clientSocket = new TcpClient(serverIPFinal, 8080);
if (clientSocket.Connected)
{
NetworkStream networkStream = clientSocket.GetStream();
networkStream.Write(bytesToSend, 0, bytesToSend.Length);
// networkStream.Close();
// clientSocket.Close();
thdListener = new Thread(new ThreadStart(listenerThreadList));
thdListener.Start();
}
}
catch
{
isConnectedLbl.Text = "Server not running";
}
}
//Listener Thread to receive list of files.
public void listenerThreadList()
{
tcpListener.Start();
while (true)
{
handlerSocket = tcpListener.AcceptSocket();
if (handlerSocket.Connected)
{
Control.CheckForIllegalCrossThreadCalls = false;
lock (this)
{
if (handlerSocket != null)
{
nSockets.Add(handlerSocket);
}
}
ThreadStart thdstHandler = new
ThreadStart(handlerThreadList);
Thread thdHandler = new Thread(thdstHandler);
thdHandler.Start();
}
}
}
//Handler Thread to receive list of files.
public void handlerThreadList()
{
Socket handlerSocketList = (Socket)nSockets[nSockets.Count - 1];
NetworkStream networkStreams = new NetworkStream(handlerSocketList);
int requestRead = 0;
string dataReceived;
byte[] buffer = new byte[1024];
//int iRx = soc.Receive(buffer);
requestRead = networkStreams.Read(buffer, 0, 1024);
char[] chars = new char[requestRead];
System.Text.Decoder d = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetDecoder();
int charLen = d.GetChars(buffer, 0, requestRead, chars, 0);
dataReceived = new System.String(chars);
Console.WriteLine(dataReceived);
MessageBox.Show(dataReceived);
//tcpListener.Stop();
thdListener.Abort();
}
The Server code:
TcpListener tcpListener = new TcpListener(8080);
public void listenerThreadCommands()
{
tcpListener.Start();
while (true)
{
handlerSocket = tcpListener.AcceptSocket();
if (handlerSocket.Connected)
{
Control.CheckForIllegalCrossThreadCalls = false;
connections.Items.Add(
handlerSocket.RemoteEndPoint.ToString() + " connected.");
// clientIP = handlerSocket.RemoteEndPoint.ToString();
lock (this)
{
nSockets.Add(handlerSocket);
}
ThreadStart thdstHandler = new
ThreadStart(handlerThreadCommands);
Thread thdHandler = new Thread(thdstHandler);
thdHandler.Start();
//tcpListener.Stop();
//handlerSocket.Close();
}
}
}
//Handler Thread to receive commands
public void handlerThreadCommands()
{
Socket handlerSocketCommands = (Socket)nSockets[nSockets.Count - 1];
NetworkStream networkStream = new NetworkStream(handlerSocketCommands);
int requestRead = 0;
string dataReceived;
byte[] buffer = new byte[1024];
requestRead = networkStream.Read(buffer, 0, 1024);
char[] chars = new char[requestRead];
System.Text.Decoder d = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetDecoder();
int charLen = d.GetChars(buffer, 0, requestRead, chars, 0);
dataReceived = new System.String(chars);
//connections.Items.Add(dataReceived);
if (dataReceived.Equals("list"))
{
localDate = DateTime.Now;
Files = Directory.GetFiles(System.IO.Directory.GetCurrentDirectory())
.Select(Path.GetFileName)
.ToArray();
String FilesString = "";
for (int i = 0; i < Files.Length; i++)
{
FilesString += Files[i] + "\n";
}
String clientIP = handlerSocketCommands.RemoteEndPoint.ToString();
int index = clientIP.IndexOf(":");
clientIP = clientIP.Substring(0, index);
WriteLogFile(logFilePath, clientIP, localDate.ToString(), " ", "list");
Console.WriteLine(clientIP);
Console.WriteLine(FilesString);
Byte[] bytesToSend = ASCIIEncoding.ASCII.GetBytes(FilesString);
try
{
WriteLogFile(logFilePath, clientIP, localDate.ToString(), " ", "list-response");
TcpClient clientSocket = new TcpClient(clientIP, 9090);
if (clientSocket.Connected)
{
NetworkStream networkStreamS = clientSocket.GetStream();
networkStreamS.Write(bytesToSend, 0, bytesToSend.Length);
networkStreamS.Close();
clientSocket.Close();
networkStream.Close();
//tcpListener.Stop();
// handlerSocketAuthenticate.Close();
}
}
catch
{
Console.WriteLine("Cant send");
}
}
else if (dataReceived.Equals("downloadfile"))
{
// handlerSocketAuthenticate.Close();
// tcpListener.Stop();
networkStream.Close();
thdListenerDownload = new Thread(new ThreadStart(listenerThreadDownloading));
thdListenerDownload.Start();
}
else
{
String clientIP1 = handlerSocketCommands.RemoteEndPoint.ToString();
int index = clientIP1.IndexOf(":");
clientIP1 = clientIP1.Substring(0, index);
// handlerSocketAuthenticate.Close();
CommandExecutor(dataReceived, clientIP1);
}
}
There are so many different things wrong with the code you posted, it's hard to know where to start, and it's impossible to have confidence that in the context of a Stack Overflow, one could sufficiently address all of the deficiencies. That said, in the interest of helping, it seems worth a try:
Sockets are bi-directional. There is no need for the client to use TcpListener at all. (By convention, the "server" is the endpoint that "listens" for new connections, and the "client" is the endpoint that initiates new connections, by connecting to a listening server.)You should just make a single connection from client to server, and then use that socket both for sending to and receiving from the server.
You are setting the CheckForIllegalCrossThreadCalls property to false. This is evil. The exceptions that occur are there to help you. Setting that property to false disables the exceptions, but does nothing to prevent the problems that the exceptions are designed to warn you about.You should use some mechanism to make sure that when you access UI objects, you do so only in the thread that owns those objects. The most primitive approach to this is to use Control.Invoke(). In modern C#, you are better off using async/await. With TcpClient, this is easy: you already are using GetStream() to get the NetworkStream object that represents the socket, so just use the asynchronous methods on that object, such as ReadAsync(), or if you wrap the stream in a StreamWriter and StreamReader, use the asynchronous methods on that object, such as ReadLineAsync().
You are checking the Connected property of the TcpClient object. This is pointless. When the Connect() method returns, you are connected. If you weren't, an exception would have been thrown.
You are not sufficiently synchronizing access to your nSockets object. In particular, you use its indexer in the handlerThreadList() method. This is safe when using the object concurrently only if you have guaranteed that no other thread is modifying the object, which is not the case in your code.
You are writing to the stream using ASCII encoding, but reading using UTF8 encoding. In practice, this is not really a problem, because ASCII includes only the code points 0-127, and those map exactly to the same character code points in UTF8. But it's really bad form. Pick one encoding, stick with it.
You are accepting using AcceptSocket(), but then just wrapping that in a NetworkStream anyway. Why not just use AcceptTcpClient() and call GetStream() on that? Both Socket and TcpClient are fine APIs, but it's a bit weird to mix and match in the same program, and will likely lead to some confusion later on, trying to keep straight which you're using where and why.
Your code assumes that the handlerThreadCommands() method will always be called in exactly the same order in which connections are accepted. That is, you retrieve the current socket with nSockets[nSockets.Count - 1]. But, due to the way Windows thread scheduling works, it is entirely possible that two or more connections could be accepted before any one of the threads meant to handle the connection is started, with the result that only the most recent connection is handled, and it is handled by those multiple threads.
You are assuming that command strings will be received as complete units. But this isn't how TCP works. TCP guarantees only that if you receive a byte, it will be in order relative to all the bytes sent before it. But you can receive any number of bytes. In particular, you can receive just a single byte, or you can receive multiple commands concatenated with each other, or you can receive half a command string, then the other half later, or the second half of one command and the first half of the next, etc. In practice, these problems don't show up in early testing because the server isn't operating under load, but later on they very well may be. And the code needs to be designed from the outset to work properly under these conditions; trying to patch bad code later is much more difficult.
I can't say that's the above are the only things wrong with the code, but they are most glaring, and in any case I think the above is sufficient food for thought for you at the moment.
Bottom line: you really should spend more time looking at good networking examples, and really getting to understand how they work and why they are written the way they do. You'll need to develop a good mental model for yourself of how the TCP protocol works, and make sure you are being very careful to follow the rules.
One resource I recommend highly is The Winsock Programmer's FAQ. It was written long ago, for a pre-.NET audience, but most of the information contained within is still very much relevant when using the higher-level networking APIs.
Alternatively, don't try to write low-level networking code yourself. There are a number of higher-level APIs that use various serialization techniques to encode whole objects and handle all of the lower-level network transport mechanics for you, allowing you to concentrate on the value-added features in your own program, instead of trying to reinvent the wheel.

Winsock server/client application in c#

I'm working to make a Client/Server Application in C# using winsock Control. I done every thing in that but i stuck the place of sending data from client to server. In my program server always listen the client using the ip and port. I send the data from the client to server.
1)When click the Listen button on the server form it open the server where client is connect.
2)In Client form 1st i click the connect button for that the server is connected Gives an message (Connect Event: ip) for this message we easly know that the client is connected to the server.
3)Then we enter some data in the Send Data text Box then click Send Button to send the data to server and also save in client.
Code Below:
SERVER:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Net;
using System.Threading;
using System.Net.Sockets;
namespace Server
{
public partial class Form1 : Form
{
public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
}
const string DEFAULT_SERVER = "ip";
const int DEFAULT_PORT = 120;
System.Net.Sockets.Socket serverSocket;
System.Net.Sockets.SocketInformation serverSocketInfo;
public string Startup()
{
IPHostEntry hostInfo = Dns.GetHostByName(DEFAULT_SERVER);
IPAddress serverAddr = hostInfo.AddressList[0];
var serverEndPoint = new IPEndPoint(serverAddr, DEFAULT_PORT);
serverSocket = new System.Net.Sockets.Socket(System.Net.Sockets.AddressFamily.InterNetwork, System.Net.Sockets.SocketType.Stream, System.Net.Sockets.ProtocolType.Tcp);
serverSocket.Bind(serverEndPoint);
return serverSocket.LocalEndPoint.ToString();
}
public string Listen()
{
int backlog = 0;
try
{
serverSocket.Listen(backlog);
return "Server listening";
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
return "Failed to listen" + ex.ToString();
}
}
public string ReceiveData()
{
System.Net.Sockets.Socket receiveSocket;
byte[] buffer = new byte[256];
receiveSocket = serverSocket.Accept();
var bytesrecd = receiveSocket.Receive(buffer);
receiveSocket.Close();
System.Text.Encoding encoding = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8;
return encoding.GetString(buffer);
}
private void Listen_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
string serverInfo = Startup();
textBox1.Text = "Server started at:" + serverInfo;
serverInfo = Listen();
textBox1.Text = serverInfo;
//string datatosend = Console.ReadLine();
//SendData(datatosend);
serverInfo = ReceiveData();
textBox1.Text = serverInfo;
//Console.ReadLine();
}
private void winsock_DataArrival(object sender, AxMSWinsockLib.DMSWinsockControlEvents_DataArrivalEvent e)
{
ReceiveData();
Listen();
}
private void winsock_ConnectEvent(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Listen();
}
}
}
This all are work perfectly But here my problem is that i get data form the client to server at only one time. When i send data again from the client to the server its not working and gives me some Message like
Additional information: Only one usage of each socket address
(protocol/network address/port) is normally permitted
In the server form
serverSocket.Bind(serverEndPoint);
Please someone help me to solve my problem.
Thank you.
Try this. It helps you
delegate void AddTextCallback(string text);
public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
}
private void ButtonConnected_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
ThreadPool.QueueUserWorkItem(new WaitCallback(ServerHandler));
}
private void ServerHandler(object state)
{
TcpListener _listner = new TcpListener(IPAddress.Parse("12.2.54.658"), 145);
_listner.Start();
AddText("Server started - Listening on port 145");
Socket _sock = _listner.AcceptSocket();
//AddText("User from IP " + _sock.RemoteEndPoint);
while (_sock.Connected)
{
byte[] _Buffer = new byte[1024];
int _DataReceived = _sock.Receive(_Buffer);
if (_DataReceived == 0)
{
break;
}
AddText("Message Received...");
string _Message = Encoding.ASCII.GetString(_Buffer);
AddText(_Message);
}
_sock.Close();
AddText("Client Disconnected.");
_listner.Stop();
AddText("Server Stop.");
}
private void AddText(string text)
{
if (this.listBox1.InvokeRequired)
{
AddTextCallback d = new AddTextCallback(AddText);
this.Invoke(d, new object[] { text });
}
else
{
this.listBox1.Items.Add(text);
}
}
I'm also have the same problem like you on last month but i solve that using this Receive multiple different messages TcpListener C# from stackoverflow. This helps me lot hope it helps to solve your problem also.
I'm not 100% sure you understand TCP sockets so here goes.
When you use a TCP listener socket you first bind to a port so that clients have a fixed, known point to connect to. This reserves the port for your socket until you give it up by calling Close() on that socket.
Next you Listen in order to begin the process of accepting clients on the port you bound to. You can do both this and the first step in one but as you haven't I haven't here.
Next you call Accept(). This blocks (halts execution) until a client connects and then it returns a socket which is dedicated to communication with that client. If you want to allow another client to connect, you have to call Accept() again.
You can then communicate with your client using the socket that was returned by Accept() until you're done, at which point you call Close() on that socket.
When you're done listening for new connections you call Close() on your listener socket.
However when you press your listen button the following happens:
You bind correctly, you begin listening correctly and then your call to ReceiveData() blocks on the Accept call until a client is received. You then receive some data (though this is TCP so that might not be the whole data!) and then you instantly close the connection to your client.
I presume to get the error you're getting you must then press listen again on your server. This therefore restarts the whole listener socket and when you get to bind to the port the second time your previous listener is still bound to it and thus the call fails because something's already allocated on that port.
Solution wise you need to keep the socket returned from the Accept() call open until you're done with it. Have the client handle the close by calling the Shutdown() method on their socket or establish some convention for marking the end of communication.
You're also going to run into trouble when you try and have multiple users connected and so at some point you're either going to require threads or some asynchronous sockets but I feel that's out the scope of this question.
I suggest you do not use AxMSWinsockLib.. Have a look at socket example given here where it shows how to create a client socket and server socket - https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/kb5kfec7(v=vs.110).aspx AND this one - https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/6y0e13d3(v=vs.110).aspx

How to properly listen for UDP packets while doing other things in Visual C#

Alright, so I'm pretty new to C# and I'm definitely pretty new to graphical programming. I'm using Visual Studio 2015 and writing my application in C#.
I have this hunk of code that I've been toying around with for a while. Essentially my program will send the HELLO, to the server, but the server isn't sending HELLO back. I have no firewall in the middle of client and server right now, but the process is getting hung waiting for the reply back. I honestly don't even want to do it this way, I want the listener to always run in the background while the user does other stuff so that my program functions, well normal. So I come to you oh great Stackoverflow... because I am definitely doing it wrong! Could someone please point me the right direction?
Current Code:
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
byte[] data = new byte[512];
byte[] result;
SHA512 shaM = new SHA512Managed();
result = shaM.ComputeHash(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(this.password.Text));
var hash = BitConverter.ToString(result).Replace("-", "");
this.send_message("127.0.0.1", 10545, 10545, "HELLO");
this.send_message("127.0.0.1", 10545, 10545, "AUTH:" + this.login.Text + ":" + hash);
//ListenForData.Start();
}
private void send_message(string server, int localPort, int remotePort, string message)
{
label4.Text = "Listening on port:" + localPort;
IPEndPoint lep = new IPEndPoint(IPAddress.Any, localPort);
Socket s = new Socket(AddressFamily.InterNetwork, SocketType.Dgram, ProtocolType.Udp);
IPAddress loginServer = IPAddress.Parse(server.ToString());
byte[] sendbuf = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(message);
IPEndPoint ep = new IPEndPoint(loginServer, remotePort);
s.SendTo(sendbuf, ep);
try
{
UdpClient udpClient = new UdpClient(lep);
byte[] bytes = udpClient.Receive(ref lep);
label4.Text = ep.ToString();
} catch ( Exception ex )
{
Console.WriteLine(ex.ToString());
}
}
UDPATE:
private static void UDPListener(object obj)
{
Task.Run(async () =>
{
using (var udpClient = new UdpClient(10545))
{
string rMessage = "";
string[] rArgs = new string[0];
while (true)
{
//IPEndPoint object will allow us to read datagrams sent from any source.
var receivedResults = await udpClient.ReceiveAsync();
rMessage += Encoding.ASCII.GetString(receivedResults.Buffer);
rArgs = rMessage.Split(new char[] { ':' });
if( rArgs[0] == "HELLO")
{
Console.Write("Received HELLO from server.");
byte[] data = new byte[512];
byte[] result;
SHA512 shaM = new SHA512Managed();
result = shaM.ComputeHash(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(obj.password.Text));
var hash = BitConverter.ToString(result).Replace("-", "");
send_message("127.0.0.1", 10545, 10545, "AUTH:" + obj.login.Text + ":" + hash);
}
}
}
});
}
You can safely ignore the advice from Blindy. The UdpClient.ReceiveAsync() method is specifically designed around the Task paradigm, and is much more efficient than dedicating a thread to receiving data. Because the Task is awaitable, it's also easier to integrate the ReceiveAsync() approach with a GUI program (e.g. Winforms or WPF). That said, for all that to work, you want to execute the ReceiveAsync() call in the UI thread, rather than in another Task.
Unfortunately, lacking a good, minimal, complete code example that clearly illustrates your question, it's not possible to say for sure how that would look. But it most likely would involve making your UDPListener() method an async method and calling it from the UI thread. Also, since you say the method can't access non-static members, the obvious solution to that is to make the method itself non-static. E.g.:
private static async Task UDPListener(object obj)
{
using (var udpClient = new UdpClient(10545))
{
string rMessage = "";
string[] rArgs = new string[0];
while (true)
{
//IPEndPoint object will allow us to read datagrams sent from any source.
var receivedResults = await udpClient.ReceiveAsync();
rMessage += Encoding.ASCII.GetString(receivedResults.Buffer);
rArgs = rMessage.Split(new char[] { ':' });
if( rArgs[0] == "HELLO")
{
Console.Write("Received HELLO from server.");
byte[] data = new byte[512];
byte[] result;
SHA512 shaM = new SHA512Managed();
result = shaM.ComputeHash(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(obj.password.Text));
var hash = BitConverter.ToString(result).Replace("-", "");
send_message("127.0.0.1", 10545, 10545, "AUTH:" + obj.login.Text + ":" + hash);
}
}
}
}
It is not clear from your updated question whether you have fixed your failed to receive a reply yet. But if you have not changed your send_message() method, it has some obvious problems, especially in the context of creating a separate UdpClient instance to receive datagrams.
The most obvious issue is that you do not create the UdpClient instance which you're expecting to use to receive the response until after you have sent the message. This is wrong for two reasons:
It's entirely possible that the remote endpoint will send the response before you've created the socket. If that happens, the datagram will just be dropped.
More importantly, the usual design for a server is to send a response to the remote endpoint that sent it the message in the first place. I.e. in this case that would be the socket s. Even if you did create the udpClient object before calling s.SendTo(), the reply would actually be sent to the s socket, not the udpClient.Client socket.
Again, without a good code example it's not possible to know what your server actually does. But whether it behaves like a normal server, or is some non-standard implementation, the code you've posted cannot reliably receive a response from the server.
You should fix your design so that your client creates only a single socket (e.g. an initial UdpClient instance). You would prepare for communication by calling ReceiveAsync(), and only once you've done that, thus ensuring you're ready to receive a response, then you can send data.
Make sure that you create only this single object.
Note also that client-side implementations typically do not bind to a specific port. Instead, you let the OS assign a port. Only the server needs to bind to a specific port, so that inbound requests from unknown endpoints can know to what port to send their request. The server's receive operation will include the port number of the client, so the server will know to what port to send its response, without the client having selected any special port number.
Finally, I strongly recommend you study existing socket programming tutorials, and especially the Winsock Programmer's FAQ. None of the material there is directly applicable to the .NET socket API, but most of the issues you will have trouble with are exactly the kinds of things documented there. It is not possible to use the .NET socket API without also having a good basic comprehension of socket programming generally.
If the above does not get you headed in the right direction, please make sure that any future questions you ask include a good code example, as described in the link I provided above. Note that for any networking question, a complete code example includes both the client and server. It is not possible for anyone to fully understand your question, never mind to test and fix your code example, without implementations of both.

Need help in "Socket Programming" using Visual C# (Dot Net Framework 4.0)?

Recently, I was given an assignment...
"To develop a Windows Forms application which can be installed on various windows machines at an office or enterprise. There would be a database in just one machine(ALPHA machine).. This database would be used by applications on other Beta machines to access data. The application would itself manage to check if it is an Alpha or a Beta (Has Database file with it?) and hence has to act as a server or a client."
I can do everything except the Network and Inter-Application Communication requirements. So, I started to learn Socket Programming over the Internet and I have gone through this link...
The idea I am working on is...
To have the client send the message to server.
To have the server accept this message and put this message in queue.
Read the message to get Client's IP Address and the its Request for Data.
Apply this request on database and get the result.
Convert the result in string.
Send it to the requesting client.
I can manage to perform steps 3,4 & 5. I am stuck on 1, 2 & 6.
Towards this...
I have created a function for Server as well as for client who return the Sockets when called. I create a separate function as I like my code to be clean, tidy and understandable after years.
Check my code below...
For Server...
private Socket GetServerReady()
{
IPEndPoint RemoteEP = new IPEndPoint(IPAddress.Any, 8000);
Socket newSock = new Socket(AddressFamily.InterNetwork, SocketType.Stream, ProtocolType.Tcp);
newSock.Connect(RemoteEP);
newSock.Listen(10);
return (newSock);
}
You will notice there is no Accept() method anywhere, This is because I wish to call it like below for further use...
Socket CltSock = GetServerReady().Accept();
The Code for Client is...
private Socket GetClientReady()
{
IPEndPoint RemoteEP = new IPEndPoint(IPAddress.Parse(txtBxHost2.Text.Trim()), 8000);
Socket ServerSock = new Socket(AddressFamily.InterNetwork, SocketType.Stream, ProtocolType.Tcp);
ServerSock.Connect(RemoteEP);
return (ServerSock);
}
Finally, The questions are....
"Where is the appropriate place to call the functions I wrote above?"
"Should I call the Server and Client Function in Form_Load() Event?"
"What must be the next step towards my main intention which is point 1,2 & 6 mentioned above?"
I don't expect the full code that I can just copy as it is. Just the correct procedure and a little detail over the concept would do.
I would be using just a single PC for testing purpose. Also, another limitation is, It would all be coded in a single application. I don't want to write two separate applications for client & server.
I hope I made it all clear for you to understand.
Thanks a Lot.
Awaiting the response.
I was struggling to get things done and somehow managed to get the solution.
Below is my solution:
Server Side code:
(I put this code in a function which loops back the execution if any exception is caught)
private void Looper()
{
int i = 0;
int AttemptCount = 1;
while (i == 0)
{
try
{
TcpListener tL = new TcpListener(Network.GetLocalIPAddress(), 56009);
tL.Start(10);
Socket tS = tL.AcceptSocket();
if (tS.Connected)
{
NetworkStream nS = new NetworkStream(tS);
StreamReader Reader = new StreamReader(nS);
Output = Reader.ReadToEnd().Trim();
Reader.Close();
nS.Close();
tS.Close();
tL.Stop();
//If Done, End Execution
i = 1;
}
else
{
MessageBox.Show("The connection to the client is broken or failed..!!\n\nPlease check connection and try again.","Error",MessageBoxButtons.OK,MessageBoxIcon.Error);
}
}
catch (SystemException ex)
{
//If Not, Loop Execution Again
if (MessageBox.Show("Exception: " + ex.Message + "\n\nAttempt Count: " + AttemptCount + "\n\nDo you want to terminate the transmission?", "Error", MessageBoxButtons.YesNo, MessageBoxIcon.Error) == DialogResult.Yes)
{
i = 1;
ResetTimer.Stop();
}
else
{
i = 0;
AttemptCount++;
}
}
}
}
When above function is called, The server waits to accept any incoming socket. If there is any error somewhere due to port re-usage or anything, It loops back itself and resets the server. (So, we don't have to manually call the server function again & again.)
Once the server accepts any incoming socket, the execution ends up successfully. Lot's of time we don't want to keep invoking server even after a successful reception. So, I, instead of calling this function in a button "click_event", I called it in a timer Tick_Event. So, the human need is eliminated at server side.
This leads to a problem. Once the server starts waiting to accept, It is in blocking mode.
It hangs all the processes and controls in same thread. So, I moved the call to above function to BackgroundWorker's "Do_Work" Event.
Check below Code:
private void GetServerReady()
{
if (!bW.IsBusy)
{
bW.RunWorkerAsync();
txtBxHistory.Text += "\r\n" + Output;
}
}
private void bW_DoWork(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
{
Looper();
}
private void ResetTimer_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
GetServerReady();
}
"bW" is "BackgroundWorker".
"Output" is a variable I defined globally.
The reason we need a variable is that,
BackgroundWorker has its own thread to execute the code placed in its "Do_Work" Event. So, a TextBox from our application's thread can't be used by BackgroundWorker to store the received output. Doing this to a variable and then setting TextBox's Text property to this variable does the trick.
Client Side code:
private void btnSend_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
TcpClient socketForServer;
try
{
socketForServer = new TcpClient(txtBxDestIP.Text.Trim(), 56009);
}
catch
{
MessageBox.Show("Failed to connect to server at " + txtBxDestIP.Text.Trim() + ":999", "Error", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Error);
return;
}
NetworkStream networkStream = socketForServer.GetStream();
StreamWriter streamWriter = new System.IO.StreamWriter(networkStream);
try
{
string InputString;
InputString = Network.GetLocalIPAddress() + ": " + txtBxData.Text;
streamWriter.Write(InputString);
streamWriter.Flush();
socketForServer.Close();
txtBxHistory.Text += "\r\nMe: " + txtBxData.Text.Trim();
txtBxData.Clear();
}
catch
{
MessageBox.Show("Exception reading from Server.", "Error", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Error);
}
streamWriter.Close();
networkStream.Close();
socketForServer.Close();
}
"txtBxDestIP" is a TextBox having the Destination IP address as Text.
"txtBxData" is a TextBox having the text to be sent.
This code works flawless for me. With above solution I can achieve all my motives from step 1 to 6 (Mentioned in the question above.)
I hope it helps others too. Please suggest if there is a better and efficient way to perform this.
Thanks.
Regards.

Unable to read data from the transport connection: the connection was closed

The exception is Remoting Exception - Authentication Failure. The detailed message says "Unable to read data from the transport connection: the connection was closed."
I'm having trouble with creating two simple servers that can comunicate as remote objects in C#. ServerInfo is just a class I created that holds the IP and Port and can give back the address. It works fine, as I used it before, and I've debugged it. Also the server is starting just fine, no exception is thrown, and the channel is registered without problems. I'm using Forms to do the interfaces, and call some of the methods on the server, but didn't find any problems in passing the parameters from the FormsApplication to the server when debugging. All seems fine in that chapter.
public ChordServerProgram()
{
RemotingServices.Marshal(this, "PADIBook");
nodeInt = 0;
}
public void startServer()
{
try
{
serverChannel = new TcpChannel(serverInfo.Port);
ChannelServices.RegisterChannel(serverChannel, true);
}
catch (Exception e)
{
Console.WriteLine(e.ToString());
}
}
I run two instances of this program. Then startNode is called on one of the instances of the application. The port is fine, the address generated is fine as well. As you can see, I'm using the IP for localhost, since this server is just for testing purposes.
public void startNode(String portStr)
{
IPAddress address = IPAddress.Parse("127.0.0.1");
Int32 port = Int32.Parse(portStr);
serverInfo = new ServerInfo(address, port);
startServer();
//node = new ChordNode(serverInfo,this);
}
Then, in the other istance, through the interface again, I call another startNode method, giving it a seed server to get information from. This is where it goes wrong. When it calls the method on the seedServer proxy it just got, a RemotingException is thrown, due to an authentication failure. (The parameter I'll want to get is the node, I'm just using the int to make sure the ChordNode class has nothing to do with this error.)
public void startNode(String portStr, String seedStr)
{
IPAddress address = IPAddress.Parse("127.0.0.1");
Int32 port = Int32.Parse(portStr);
serverInfo = new ServerInfo(address, port);
IPAddress addressSeed = IPAddress.Parse("127.0.0.1");
Int32 portSeed = Int32.Parse(seedStr);
ServerInfo seedInfo = new ServerInfo(addressSeed, portSeed);
startServer();
ChordServerProgram seedServer = (ChordServerProgram)Activator.GetObject(typeof(ChordServerProgram), seedInfo.GetFullAddress());
// node = new ChordNode(serverInfo,this);
int seedNode = seedServer.nodeInt;
// node.chordJoin(seedNode.self);
}
Try setting the ensureSecurity to false, and it should start working.
ChannelServices.RegisterChannel(serverChannel, false);
You've specified that security is a must on your Remoting server in startServer() with:
ChannelServices.RegisterChannel(serverChannel, true);
Yet the 'client' end does not specify security, hence the authorisation error. You need to specify tcp channel security on both ends unless the server security setting is set to 'false'. In your second startNode method you need to do the following before using Activator.GetObject, note no port specified on the TcpChannel unlike the server end:
TcpChannel ClientChan = new TcpChannel();
ChannelServices.RegisterChannel(ClientChan, true);
Furthermore, unless you're doing it in some code you haven't given us, you also do not seem to have registered a well known service type server side, although you say it's been working in the debugger so maybe that's not necessary in the case. See MSDN on RegisterWellKnownServiceType.

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