TcpClient.EndConnect throws NullReferenceException when socket is closed - c#

I am trying to connect to my server with a TcpClient.BeginConnect / TcpClient.EndConnect combo. However, some things don't work as they should.
The scenario is as follows:
Call to the TcpClient.BeginConnect
Server is intentionally offline (for testing purposes) - thus no connection can be made.
I close the application (client.Close() gets called in the process which closes the socket which in turn stops the async operation)
TcpClient connection callback method happens giving IAsyncResult
Call to the TcpClient.EndConnect method with the given IAsyncResult
NullReferenceException happens on EndConnect (?)
Since the last form (window) was closed, the app should exit - however it does not, at least not until BeginConnect operation completes (which is strange, as callback has already been called).
What happens here is that a NullReferenceException is caught. As you can see from the picture above, neither client nor ar are null. The problem is that the MSDN documentation for the EndConnect does not mention the case in which this exception is thrown.
So basically, I have no idea what is going on. The problem is that I am forced to wait for the app to close (as if the connection operation still waits for a timeout). If a server is online, it connects and disconnects just fine.
What does NullReferenceException in this context mean? How to avoid BeginConnect operation to block the application closing in case the connection can't be established?
Additional notes (requested in comments):
Here is the code to create the client (client is a member variable:
public void Connect()
{
try
{
lock (connectionAccess)
{
if (State.IsConnectable())
{
// Create a client
client = new TcpClient();
client.LingerState = new LingerOption(false, 0);
client.NoDelay = true;
State = CommunicationState.Connecting;
client.BeginConnect(address, port, onTcpClientConnectionEstablished, null);
}
else
{
// Ignore connecting request if a connection is in a state that is not connectable
}
}
}
catch
{
Close(true);
}
}
Also the Close method:
public void Close(bool causedByError)
{
lock (connectionAccess)
{
// Close the stream
if (clientStream != null)
clientStream.Close();
// Close the gateway
if (client != null)
client.Close();
// Empty the mailboxes
incomingMailbox.Clear();
outgoingMailbox.Clear();
State = causedByError ? CommunicationState.CommunicationError : CommunicationState.Disconnected;
}
}

The NullReferenceException is probably due to TcpClient.Client being null.
If you were to follow the MSDN Example for TcpClient.BeginConnect and pass theTcpClient object as the state object:
private void onConnEst(IAsyncResult ar)
{
try
{
TcpClient client = (TcpClient)ar.AsyncState;
if(client!=null && client.Client!=null)
{
client.EndConnect(ar);
}
}
catch(Exception ex){...}
}
This should handle the case when Close() is called before the Callback.
Going back to your problem - how long does it take for the application to eventually close?

This obviously a bug inside the TcpClient class. I have also faced it. TcpClient.Dispose may set Client field to null but EndConnect does not expect that.

I had a similar error and ended up using this code. I am not sure if it will hold with the IASyncResult interface, but there may be a similar way to run this check. I do notice that your ar.AsyncState == null, so perhaps try starting there, i.e. is it null when you connect properly?
private void connConnectCompleted(AsyncCompletedEventArgs e)
{
if (e.Error != null)
{
// Something didn't work...abort captain
CloseSocket();
Console.WriteLine(this.GetType().ToString() + #":Error connecting socket:" + e.Error.Message);
return;
}
// Do stuff with your connection
}
EDIT: Sorry I didn't realise I didn't post what generated my AsyncCompletedEventArgs, which is more related to what you are doing. You will see the reason why I was wondering as to ar.AsyncState being null.
private void OnConnect(IAsyncResult asyncResult)
{
if (OnConnectCompleted == null) return; // Check whether something is using this wrapper
AsyncCompletedEventArgs args;
try
{
Socket outSocket = (Socket) asyncResult.AsyncState;
// Complete connection
outSocket.EndConnect(asyncResult);
args = new AsyncCompletedEventArgs(null);
OnConnectCompleted(this, args);
}
catch (Exception e)
{
args = new AsyncCompletedEventArgs(e.Message);
OnConnectCompleted(this, args);
}
}

This is a know bug.
You should be receiving 'ObjectDisposedException' instead of 'NullReferenceException'.

Related

Quickfix/n - No event for connection timeout or host not found?

So I have a project where I need to create failover between two FIX quote hosts in case of failure.
The FixApplication (IApplication) OnLogout() is nice to hook an event to when a socket is dropped or you are logged out. This is simple. But this only works if the socket connection was successful to start off with.
If you start up the application and the host is down, no method is actually called for this anywhere. Not in IApplication, nor in the socket IInitiator. No error is thrown anywhere either, the QuickFix initiator will simply just silently retry.
I am using a Timer with a callback right now to manually poll every so often and check if Initiator IsLoggedOn() is false. Then triggering a failover.
But this is really clunky and not elegant.
Is there any other event or method I can hook into to receive the notice for socket network failures BEFORE a network connection and session is established successfully?
Thanks!
Timer t = new Timer(5000)
t.Elapsed += CheckSocketConnected;
private void CheckSocketConnected(object source, ElapsedEventArgs e)
{
var connected = socketInitiator.IsLoggedOn;
if (!connected)
{
SwitchToAlternateProvider();
}
}
Well, after realising the limitation of the QuickFix/N component, I would never receive any feedback from this library if the host was down.
My resolution was to just simply use the following piece of code to check if socket was open before starting the connection in QuickFix/n
bool IsPortOpen(string host, int port, TimeSpan timeout)
{
try
{
using(var client = new TcpClient())
{
var result = client.BeginConnect(host, port, null, null);
var success = result.AsyncWaitHandle.WaitOne(timeout);
if (!success)
{
return false;
}
client.EndConnect(result);
}
}
catch
{
return false;
}
return true;
}

Async tcp client server. How can I determine that the client or the server is no longer available? [duplicate]

How can I detect that a client has disconnected from my server?
I have the following code in my AcceptCallBack method
static Socket handler = null;
public static void AcceptCallback(IAsyncResult ar)
{
//Accept incoming connection
Socket listener = (Socket)ar.AsyncState;
handler = listener.EndAccept(ar);
}
I need to find a way to discover as soon as possible that the client has disconnected from the handler Socket.
I've tried:
handler.Available;
handler.Send(new byte[1], 0,
SocketFlags.None);
handler.Receive(new byte[1], 0,
SocketFlags.None);
The above approaches work when you are connecting to a server and want to detect when the server disconnects but they do not work when you are the server and want to detect client disconnection.
Any help will be appreciated.
Since there are no events available to signal when the socket is disconnected, you will have to poll it at a frequency that is acceptable to you.
Using this extension method, you can have a reliable method to detect if a socket is disconnected.
static class SocketExtensions
{
public static bool IsConnected(this Socket socket)
{
try
{
return !(socket.Poll(1, SelectMode.SelectRead) && socket.Available == 0);
}
catch (SocketException) { return false; }
}
}
Someone mentioned keepAlive capability of TCP Socket.
Here it is nicely described:
http://tldp.org/HOWTO/TCP-Keepalive-HOWTO/overview.html
I'm using it this way: after the socket is connected, I'm calling this function, which sets keepAlive on. The keepAliveTime parameter specifies the timeout, in milliseconds, with no activity until the first keep-alive packet is sent. The keepAliveInterval parameter specifies the interval, in milliseconds, between when successive keep-alive packets are sent if no acknowledgement is received.
void SetKeepAlive(bool on, uint keepAliveTime, uint keepAliveInterval)
{
int size = Marshal.SizeOf(new uint());
var inOptionValues = new byte[size * 3];
BitConverter.GetBytes((uint)(on ? 1 : 0)).CopyTo(inOptionValues, 0);
BitConverter.GetBytes((uint)keepAliveTime).CopyTo(inOptionValues, size);
BitConverter.GetBytes((uint)keepAliveInterval).CopyTo(inOptionValues, size * 2);
socket.IOControl(IOControlCode.KeepAliveValues, inOptionValues, null);
}
I'm also using asynchronous reading:
socket.BeginReceive(packet.dataBuffer, 0, 128,
SocketFlags.None, new AsyncCallback(OnDataReceived), packet);
And in callback, here is caught timeout SocketException, which raises when socket doesn't get ACK signal after keep-alive packet.
public void OnDataReceived(IAsyncResult asyn)
{
try
{
SocketPacket theSockId = (SocketPacket)asyn.AsyncState;
int iRx = socket.EndReceive(asyn);
}
catch (SocketException ex)
{
SocketExceptionCaught(ex);
}
}
This way, I'm able to safely detect disconnection between TCP client and server.
This is simply not possible. There is no physical connection between you and the server (except in the extremely rare case where you are connecting between two compuers with a loopback cable).
When the connection is closed gracefully, the other side is notified. But if the connection is disconnected some other way (say the users connection is dropped) then the server won't know until it times out (or tries to write to the connection and the ack times out). That's just the way TCP works and you have to live with it.
Therefore, "instantly" is unrealistic. The best you can do is within the timeout period, which depends on the platform the code is running on.
EDIT:
If you are only looking for graceful connections, then why not just send a "DISCONNECT" command to the server from your client?
"That's just the way TCP works and you have to live with it."
Yup, you're right. It's a fact of life I've come to realize. You will see the same behavior exhibited even in professional applications utilizing this protocol (and even others). I've even seen it occur in online games; you're buddy says "goodbye", and he appears to be online for another 1-2 minutes until the server "cleans house".
You can use the suggested methods here, or implement a "heartbeat", as also suggested. I choose the former. But if I did choose the latter, I'd simply have the server "ping" each client every so often with a single byte, and see if we have a timeout or no response. You could even use a background thread to achieve this with precise timing. Maybe even a combination could be implemented in some sort of options list (enum flags or something) if you're really worried about it. But it's no so big a deal to have a little delay in updating the server, as long as you DO update. It's the internet, and no one expects it to be magic! :)
Implementing heartbeat into your system might be a solution. This is only possible if both client and server are under your control. You can have a DateTime object keeping track of the time when the last bytes were received from the socket. And assume that the socket not responded over a certain interval are lost. This will only work if you have heartbeat/custom keep alive implemented.
I've found quite useful, another workaround for that!
If you use asynchronous methods for reading data from the network socket (I mean, use BeginReceive - EndReceive methods), whenever a connection is terminated; one of these situations appear: Either a message is sent with no data (you can see it with Socket.Available - even though BeginReceive is triggered, its value will be zero) or Socket.Connected value becomes false in this call (don't try to use EndReceive then).
I'm posting the function I used, I think you can see what I meant from it better:
private void OnRecieve(IAsyncResult parameter)
{
Socket sock = (Socket)parameter.AsyncState;
if(!sock.Connected || sock.Available == 0)
{
// Connection is terminated, either by force or willingly
return;
}
sock.EndReceive(parameter);
sock.BeginReceive(..., ... , ... , ..., new AsyncCallback(OnRecieve), sock);
// To handle further commands sent by client.
// "..." zones might change in your code.
}
This worked for me, the key is you need a separate thread to analyze the socket state with polling. doing it in the same thread as the socket fails detection.
//open or receive a server socket - TODO your code here
socket = new Socket(....);
//enable the keep alive so we can detect closure
socket.SetSocketOption(SocketOptionLevel.Socket, SocketOptionName.KeepAlive, true);
//create a thread that checks every 5 seconds if the socket is still connected. TODO add your thread starting code
void MonitorSocketsForClosureWorker() {
DateTime nextCheckTime = DateTime.Now.AddSeconds(5);
while (!exitSystem) {
if (nextCheckTime < DateTime.Now) {
try {
if (socket!=null) {
if(socket.Poll(5000, SelectMode.SelectRead) && socket.Available == 0) {
//socket not connected, close it if it's still running
socket.Close();
socket = null;
} else {
//socket still connected
}
}
} catch {
socket.Close();
} finally {
nextCheckTime = DateTime.Now.AddSeconds(5);
}
}
Thread.Sleep(1000);
}
}
The example code here
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.net.sockets.socket.connected.aspx
shows how to determine whether the Socket is still connected without sending any data.
If you called Socket.BeginReceive() on the server program and then the client closed the connection "gracefully", your receive callback will be called and EndReceive() will return 0 bytes. These 0 bytes mean that the client "may" have disconnected. You can then use the technique shown in the MSDN example code to determine for sure whether the connection was closed.
Expanding on comments by mbargiel and mycelo on the accepted answer, the following can be used with a non-blocking socket on the server end to inform whether the client has shut down.
This approach does not suffer the race condition that affects the Poll method in the accepted answer.
// Determines whether the remote end has called Shutdown
public bool HasRemoteEndShutDown
{
get
{
try
{
int bytesRead = socket.Receive(new byte[1], SocketFlags.Peek);
if (bytesRead == 0)
return true;
}
catch
{
// For a non-blocking socket, a SocketException with
// code 10035 (WSAEWOULDBLOCK) indicates no data available.
}
return false;
}
}
The approach is based on the fact that the Socket.Receive method returns zero immediately after the remote end shuts down its socket and we've read all of the data from it. From Socket.Receive documentation:
If the remote host shuts down the Socket connection with the Shutdown method, and all available data has been received, the Receive method will complete immediately and return zero bytes.
If you are in non-blocking mode, and there is no data available in the protocol stack buffer, the Receive method will complete immediately and throw a SocketException.
The second point explains the need for the try-catch.
Use of the SocketFlags.Peek flag leaves any received data untouched for a separate receive mechanism to read.
The above will work with a blocking socket as well, but be aware that the code will block on the Receive call (until data is received or the receive timeout elapses, again resulting in a SocketException).
Above answers can be summarized as follow :
Socket.Connected properity determine socket state depend on last read or receive state so it can't detect current disconnection state until you manually close the connection or remote end gracefully close of socket (shutdown).
So we can use the function below to check connection state:
bool IsConnected(Socket socket)
{
try
{
if (socket == null) return false;
return !((socket.Poll(5000, SelectMode.SelectRead) && socket.Available == 0) || !socket.Connected);
}
catch (SocketException)
{
return false;
}
//the above code is short exp to :
/* try
{
bool state1 = socket.Poll(5000, SelectMode.SelectRead);
bool state2 = (socket.Available == 0);
if ((state1 && state2) || !socket.Connected)
return false;
else
return true;
}
catch (SocketException)
{
return false;
}
*/
}
Also the above check need to care about poll respone time(block time)
Also as said by Microsoft Documents : this poll method "can't detect proplems like a broken netwrok cable or that remote host was shut down ungracefuuly".
also as said above there is race condition between socket.poll and socket.avaiable which may give false disconnect.
The best way as said by Microsoft Documents is to attempt to send or recive data to detect these kinds of errors as MS docs said.
The below code is from Microsoft Documents :
// This is how you can determine whether a socket is still connected.
bool IsConnected(Socket client)
{
bool blockingState = client.Blocking; //save socket blocking state.
bool isConnected = true;
try
{
byte [] tmp = new byte[1];
client.Blocking = false;
client.Send(tmp, 0, 0); //make a nonblocking, zero-byte Send call (dummy)
//Console.WriteLine("Connected!");
}
catch (SocketException e)
{
// 10035 == WSAEWOULDBLOCK
if (e.NativeErrorCode.Equals(10035))
{
//Console.WriteLine("Still Connected, but the Send would block");
}
else
{
//Console.WriteLine("Disconnected: error code {0}!", e.NativeErrorCode);
isConnected = false;
}
}
finally
{
client.Blocking = blockingState;
}
//Console.WriteLine("Connected: {0}", client.Connected);
return isConnected ;
}
//and heres comments from microsoft docs*
The socket.Connected property gets the connection state of the Socket as of the last I/O operation. When it returns false, the Socket was either never connected, or is no longer connected. 
Connected is not thread-safe; it may return true after an operation is aborted when the Socket is disconnected from another thread.
The value of the Connected property reflects the state of the connection as of the most recent operation.
If you need to determine the current state of the connection, make a nonblocking, zero-byte Send call. If the call returns successfully or throws a WAEWOULDBLOCK error code (10035), then the socket is still connected; //otherwise, the socket is no longer connected .
Can't you just use Select?
Use select on a connected socket. If the select returns with your socket as Ready but the subsequent Receive returns 0 bytes that means the client disconnected the connection. AFAIK, that is the fastest way to determine if the client disconnected.
I do not know C# so just ignore if my solution does not fit in C# (C# does provide select though) or if I had misunderstood the context.
Using the method SetSocketOption, you will be able to set KeepAlive that will let you know whenever a Socket gets disconnected
Socket _connectedSocket = this._sSocketEscucha.EndAccept(asyn);
_connectedSocket.SetSocketOption(SocketOptionLevel.Socket, SocketOptionName.KeepAlive, 1);
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/1011kecd(v=VS.90).aspx
Hope it helps!
Ramiro Rinaldi
i had same problem , try this :
void client_handler(Socket client) // set 'KeepAlive' true
{
while (true)
{
try
{
if (client.Connected)
{
}
else
{ // client disconnected
break;
}
}
catch (Exception)
{
client.Poll(4000, SelectMode.SelectRead);// try to get state
}
}
}
This is in VB, but it seems to work well for me. It looks for a 0 byte return like the previous post.
Private Sub RecData(ByVal AR As IAsyncResult)
Dim Socket As Socket = AR.AsyncState
If Socket.Connected = False And Socket.Available = False Then
Debug.Print("Detected Disconnected Socket - " + Socket.RemoteEndPoint.ToString)
Exit Sub
End If
Dim BytesRead As Int32 = Socket.EndReceive(AR)
If BytesRead = 0 Then
Debug.Print("Detected Disconnected Socket - Bytes Read = 0 - " + Socket.RemoteEndPoint.ToString)
UpdateText("Client " + Socket.RemoteEndPoint.ToString + " has disconnected from Server.")
Socket.Close()
Exit Sub
End If
Dim msg As String = System.Text.ASCIIEncoding.ASCII.GetString(ByteData)
Erase ByteData
ReDim ByteData(1024)
ClientSocket.BeginReceive(ByteData, 0, ByteData.Length, SocketFlags.None, New AsyncCallback(AddressOf RecData), ClientSocket)
UpdateText(msg)
End Sub
You can also check the .IsConnected property of the socket if you were to poll.

How do i check if client still alive [duplicate]

How can I detect that a client has disconnected from my server?
I have the following code in my AcceptCallBack method
static Socket handler = null;
public static void AcceptCallback(IAsyncResult ar)
{
//Accept incoming connection
Socket listener = (Socket)ar.AsyncState;
handler = listener.EndAccept(ar);
}
I need to find a way to discover as soon as possible that the client has disconnected from the handler Socket.
I've tried:
handler.Available;
handler.Send(new byte[1], 0,
SocketFlags.None);
handler.Receive(new byte[1], 0,
SocketFlags.None);
The above approaches work when you are connecting to a server and want to detect when the server disconnects but they do not work when you are the server and want to detect client disconnection.
Any help will be appreciated.
Since there are no events available to signal when the socket is disconnected, you will have to poll it at a frequency that is acceptable to you.
Using this extension method, you can have a reliable method to detect if a socket is disconnected.
static class SocketExtensions
{
public static bool IsConnected(this Socket socket)
{
try
{
return !(socket.Poll(1, SelectMode.SelectRead) && socket.Available == 0);
}
catch (SocketException) { return false; }
}
}
Someone mentioned keepAlive capability of TCP Socket.
Here it is nicely described:
http://tldp.org/HOWTO/TCP-Keepalive-HOWTO/overview.html
I'm using it this way: after the socket is connected, I'm calling this function, which sets keepAlive on. The keepAliveTime parameter specifies the timeout, in milliseconds, with no activity until the first keep-alive packet is sent. The keepAliveInterval parameter specifies the interval, in milliseconds, between when successive keep-alive packets are sent if no acknowledgement is received.
void SetKeepAlive(bool on, uint keepAliveTime, uint keepAliveInterval)
{
int size = Marshal.SizeOf(new uint());
var inOptionValues = new byte[size * 3];
BitConverter.GetBytes((uint)(on ? 1 : 0)).CopyTo(inOptionValues, 0);
BitConverter.GetBytes((uint)keepAliveTime).CopyTo(inOptionValues, size);
BitConverter.GetBytes((uint)keepAliveInterval).CopyTo(inOptionValues, size * 2);
socket.IOControl(IOControlCode.KeepAliveValues, inOptionValues, null);
}
I'm also using asynchronous reading:
socket.BeginReceive(packet.dataBuffer, 0, 128,
SocketFlags.None, new AsyncCallback(OnDataReceived), packet);
And in callback, here is caught timeout SocketException, which raises when socket doesn't get ACK signal after keep-alive packet.
public void OnDataReceived(IAsyncResult asyn)
{
try
{
SocketPacket theSockId = (SocketPacket)asyn.AsyncState;
int iRx = socket.EndReceive(asyn);
}
catch (SocketException ex)
{
SocketExceptionCaught(ex);
}
}
This way, I'm able to safely detect disconnection between TCP client and server.
This is simply not possible. There is no physical connection between you and the server (except in the extremely rare case where you are connecting between two compuers with a loopback cable).
When the connection is closed gracefully, the other side is notified. But if the connection is disconnected some other way (say the users connection is dropped) then the server won't know until it times out (or tries to write to the connection and the ack times out). That's just the way TCP works and you have to live with it.
Therefore, "instantly" is unrealistic. The best you can do is within the timeout period, which depends on the platform the code is running on.
EDIT:
If you are only looking for graceful connections, then why not just send a "DISCONNECT" command to the server from your client?
"That's just the way TCP works and you have to live with it."
Yup, you're right. It's a fact of life I've come to realize. You will see the same behavior exhibited even in professional applications utilizing this protocol (and even others). I've even seen it occur in online games; you're buddy says "goodbye", and he appears to be online for another 1-2 minutes until the server "cleans house".
You can use the suggested methods here, or implement a "heartbeat", as also suggested. I choose the former. But if I did choose the latter, I'd simply have the server "ping" each client every so often with a single byte, and see if we have a timeout or no response. You could even use a background thread to achieve this with precise timing. Maybe even a combination could be implemented in some sort of options list (enum flags or something) if you're really worried about it. But it's no so big a deal to have a little delay in updating the server, as long as you DO update. It's the internet, and no one expects it to be magic! :)
Implementing heartbeat into your system might be a solution. This is only possible if both client and server are under your control. You can have a DateTime object keeping track of the time when the last bytes were received from the socket. And assume that the socket not responded over a certain interval are lost. This will only work if you have heartbeat/custom keep alive implemented.
I've found quite useful, another workaround for that!
If you use asynchronous methods for reading data from the network socket (I mean, use BeginReceive - EndReceive methods), whenever a connection is terminated; one of these situations appear: Either a message is sent with no data (you can see it with Socket.Available - even though BeginReceive is triggered, its value will be zero) or Socket.Connected value becomes false in this call (don't try to use EndReceive then).
I'm posting the function I used, I think you can see what I meant from it better:
private void OnRecieve(IAsyncResult parameter)
{
Socket sock = (Socket)parameter.AsyncState;
if(!sock.Connected || sock.Available == 0)
{
// Connection is terminated, either by force or willingly
return;
}
sock.EndReceive(parameter);
sock.BeginReceive(..., ... , ... , ..., new AsyncCallback(OnRecieve), sock);
// To handle further commands sent by client.
// "..." zones might change in your code.
}
This worked for me, the key is you need a separate thread to analyze the socket state with polling. doing it in the same thread as the socket fails detection.
//open or receive a server socket - TODO your code here
socket = new Socket(....);
//enable the keep alive so we can detect closure
socket.SetSocketOption(SocketOptionLevel.Socket, SocketOptionName.KeepAlive, true);
//create a thread that checks every 5 seconds if the socket is still connected. TODO add your thread starting code
void MonitorSocketsForClosureWorker() {
DateTime nextCheckTime = DateTime.Now.AddSeconds(5);
while (!exitSystem) {
if (nextCheckTime < DateTime.Now) {
try {
if (socket!=null) {
if(socket.Poll(5000, SelectMode.SelectRead) && socket.Available == 0) {
//socket not connected, close it if it's still running
socket.Close();
socket = null;
} else {
//socket still connected
}
}
} catch {
socket.Close();
} finally {
nextCheckTime = DateTime.Now.AddSeconds(5);
}
}
Thread.Sleep(1000);
}
}
The example code here
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.net.sockets.socket.connected.aspx
shows how to determine whether the Socket is still connected without sending any data.
If you called Socket.BeginReceive() on the server program and then the client closed the connection "gracefully", your receive callback will be called and EndReceive() will return 0 bytes. These 0 bytes mean that the client "may" have disconnected. You can then use the technique shown in the MSDN example code to determine for sure whether the connection was closed.
Expanding on comments by mbargiel and mycelo on the accepted answer, the following can be used with a non-blocking socket on the server end to inform whether the client has shut down.
This approach does not suffer the race condition that affects the Poll method in the accepted answer.
// Determines whether the remote end has called Shutdown
public bool HasRemoteEndShutDown
{
get
{
try
{
int bytesRead = socket.Receive(new byte[1], SocketFlags.Peek);
if (bytesRead == 0)
return true;
}
catch
{
// For a non-blocking socket, a SocketException with
// code 10035 (WSAEWOULDBLOCK) indicates no data available.
}
return false;
}
}
The approach is based on the fact that the Socket.Receive method returns zero immediately after the remote end shuts down its socket and we've read all of the data from it. From Socket.Receive documentation:
If the remote host shuts down the Socket connection with the Shutdown method, and all available data has been received, the Receive method will complete immediately and return zero bytes.
If you are in non-blocking mode, and there is no data available in the protocol stack buffer, the Receive method will complete immediately and throw a SocketException.
The second point explains the need for the try-catch.
Use of the SocketFlags.Peek flag leaves any received data untouched for a separate receive mechanism to read.
The above will work with a blocking socket as well, but be aware that the code will block on the Receive call (until data is received or the receive timeout elapses, again resulting in a SocketException).
Above answers can be summarized as follow :
Socket.Connected properity determine socket state depend on last read or receive state so it can't detect current disconnection state until you manually close the connection or remote end gracefully close of socket (shutdown).
So we can use the function below to check connection state:
bool IsConnected(Socket socket)
{
try
{
if (socket == null) return false;
return !((socket.Poll(5000, SelectMode.SelectRead) && socket.Available == 0) || !socket.Connected);
}
catch (SocketException)
{
return false;
}
//the above code is short exp to :
/* try
{
bool state1 = socket.Poll(5000, SelectMode.SelectRead);
bool state2 = (socket.Available == 0);
if ((state1 && state2) || !socket.Connected)
return false;
else
return true;
}
catch (SocketException)
{
return false;
}
*/
}
Also the above check need to care about poll respone time(block time)
Also as said by Microsoft Documents : this poll method "can't detect proplems like a broken netwrok cable or that remote host was shut down ungracefuuly".
also as said above there is race condition between socket.poll and socket.avaiable which may give false disconnect.
The best way as said by Microsoft Documents is to attempt to send or recive data to detect these kinds of errors as MS docs said.
The below code is from Microsoft Documents :
// This is how you can determine whether a socket is still connected.
bool IsConnected(Socket client)
{
bool blockingState = client.Blocking; //save socket blocking state.
bool isConnected = true;
try
{
byte [] tmp = new byte[1];
client.Blocking = false;
client.Send(tmp, 0, 0); //make a nonblocking, zero-byte Send call (dummy)
//Console.WriteLine("Connected!");
}
catch (SocketException e)
{
// 10035 == WSAEWOULDBLOCK
if (e.NativeErrorCode.Equals(10035))
{
//Console.WriteLine("Still Connected, but the Send would block");
}
else
{
//Console.WriteLine("Disconnected: error code {0}!", e.NativeErrorCode);
isConnected = false;
}
}
finally
{
client.Blocking = blockingState;
}
//Console.WriteLine("Connected: {0}", client.Connected);
return isConnected ;
}
//and heres comments from microsoft docs*
The socket.Connected property gets the connection state of the Socket as of the last I/O operation. When it returns false, the Socket was either never connected, or is no longer connected. 
Connected is not thread-safe; it may return true after an operation is aborted when the Socket is disconnected from another thread.
The value of the Connected property reflects the state of the connection as of the most recent operation.
If you need to determine the current state of the connection, make a nonblocking, zero-byte Send call. If the call returns successfully or throws a WAEWOULDBLOCK error code (10035), then the socket is still connected; //otherwise, the socket is no longer connected .
Can't you just use Select?
Use select on a connected socket. If the select returns with your socket as Ready but the subsequent Receive returns 0 bytes that means the client disconnected the connection. AFAIK, that is the fastest way to determine if the client disconnected.
I do not know C# so just ignore if my solution does not fit in C# (C# does provide select though) or if I had misunderstood the context.
Using the method SetSocketOption, you will be able to set KeepAlive that will let you know whenever a Socket gets disconnected
Socket _connectedSocket = this._sSocketEscucha.EndAccept(asyn);
_connectedSocket.SetSocketOption(SocketOptionLevel.Socket, SocketOptionName.KeepAlive, 1);
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/1011kecd(v=VS.90).aspx
Hope it helps!
Ramiro Rinaldi
i had same problem , try this :
void client_handler(Socket client) // set 'KeepAlive' true
{
while (true)
{
try
{
if (client.Connected)
{
}
else
{ // client disconnected
break;
}
}
catch (Exception)
{
client.Poll(4000, SelectMode.SelectRead);// try to get state
}
}
}
This is in VB, but it seems to work well for me. It looks for a 0 byte return like the previous post.
Private Sub RecData(ByVal AR As IAsyncResult)
Dim Socket As Socket = AR.AsyncState
If Socket.Connected = False And Socket.Available = False Then
Debug.Print("Detected Disconnected Socket - " + Socket.RemoteEndPoint.ToString)
Exit Sub
End If
Dim BytesRead As Int32 = Socket.EndReceive(AR)
If BytesRead = 0 Then
Debug.Print("Detected Disconnected Socket - Bytes Read = 0 - " + Socket.RemoteEndPoint.ToString)
UpdateText("Client " + Socket.RemoteEndPoint.ToString + " has disconnected from Server.")
Socket.Close()
Exit Sub
End If
Dim msg As String = System.Text.ASCIIEncoding.ASCII.GetString(ByteData)
Erase ByteData
ReDim ByteData(1024)
ClientSocket.BeginReceive(ByteData, 0, ByteData.Length, SocketFlags.None, New AsyncCallback(AddressOf RecData), ClientSocket)
UpdateText(msg)
End Sub
You can also check the .IsConnected property of the socket if you were to poll.

C# - Avoid getting a SocketException

I was wondering if there's a way to avoid getting a SocketException whenever I cannot connect rather than catching the SocketException using try/catch.
I have this code which checks if a server is available of not:
public bool CheckServerStatus(string IP, int Port)
{
try
{
IPAddress[] IPs = Dns.GetHostAddresses(IP);
using (Socket s = new Socket(AddressFamily.InterNetwork,
SocketType.Stream,
ProtocolType.Tcp))
s.Connect(IPs[0], Port);
return true;
}
catch (SocketException)
{
return false;
}
}
Thanks in advance.
You may subclass Socket and provide your specific implementation:
public class MySocket : Socket{
//...
public boolean TryConnect(...){
}
}
You could also instead of a boolean, return a Result object that save the exception for error handling:
public class Result {
public Exception Error { get; set; }
public boolean Success { get{ return Error != null; } }
}
Getting a SocketException isn't a problem; this is what the exception should be used for. Depending on the type of exception you get, you can handle them different ways. It would have been bad if you just caught Exception rather than the more specific SocketException.
Why do you want to avoid it so much? As the comments say, at some point, somewhere, code will fail if the other end of the connection is not available. Just make sure you catch that failure at the appropriate place, like you appear to be doing now.
I managed to accomplish this using BeginConnect as follows
int connectTimeoutMS = 1000;
IPEndPoint endPoint = GetEndPoint();
var evt = new AutoResetEvent(false);
_socket.BeginConnect(endPoint, (AsyncCallback)delegate { evt.Set(); }, null);
evt.WaitOne(connectTimeoutMS);
Maybe you can solve the problem in the first place by using Ahmed approach, but this simply moves the problem a lever deeper.
The main reason why there exists no such a test method is the possibility of a race condition. Just imagine you would check if such a socket is possible and before you can try to establish this socket in the next line a context switch happens (to another thread or application) that just allocates this socket for himself. Now you still get the exception and you have to check for it (by using the try-catch approach).
So this test simply adds no benefit to your code, cause you still have to be prepared for a failing of this method. And that's the reason with this test doesn't exist.

Non blocking UDP socket .NET "A non-blocking socket operation could not be completed immediately" exception

I have written a small UDP client server class in C# that is used to provide comms between a Linux and a Windows machines.
The implementation of the UDP client and server in C# in Windows is a direct rewrite from C++ code I wrote for Linux originally.
I have no problems during run time between Linux machines but there is an intermittent problem that occasionally appears between Linux and Windows link.
Due to the application I need fast, non blocking operation of the UDP socket.
Since one client is Linux the code under C# I had to use some magic of marshalling.
Here is the code:
public bool Connect(string sIPAddr, int portNumber)
{
try
{
if (portNumber > 65535 && portNumber < 0)
{
this._isReady = false;
return this._isReady;
}
this._ipPort = portNumber;
this._ipAddress = IPAddress.Parse(sIPAddr);
IPEndPoint ipep = new IPEndPoint(this._ipAddress, this._ipPort);
this._myUDPClient = new Socket(ipep.Address.AddressFamily, SocketType.Dgram, ProtocolType.Udp);
this._myUDPClient.Blocking = false;
this._myUDPClient.Connect(this._ipAddress, this._ipPort);
this._isReady = true;
return this._isReady;
}
catch (Exception)
{
this._isReady = false;
return this._isReady;
}
}
I use connect on UDP to simplify send and receive calls.
The problem happens when I try and read from the socket.
More code:
public bool NewMessageReceived()
{
try
{
if (this._newMessaageReceived)
{
return this._newMessaageReceived;
}
else
{
_messageBuffer = new byte[65507];
int numBytesRcvd = _myUDPClient.Receive(this._messageBuffer, 65507, SocketFlags.None);
Marshal.Copy(_messageBuffer, 0, _pmessageBuffer, 65507);
if (numBytesRcvd < 0)
{
this._newMessaageReceived = false;
// TODO: Add Socket Error Checking
}
else
{
this._newMessaageReceived = true;
}
Array.Clear(_messageBuffer, 0, _messageBuffer.GetLength(0));
return this._newMessaageReceived;
}
}
catch (Exception e)
{
System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox.Show(e.Message);
return false;
}
}
I have Wireshark running on both machines and I can see that the datagram sent from Linux machine arrives on Windows machine unharmed. However the UDP client Receive call throws and exception saying: "A non-blocking socket operation could not be completed
immediately" which from what I understand is a WSAEWOULDBLOCK error. However I explicitly set blocking option to false.
The sequence of events is the following:
Windows machine sends a datagram on port 2 and listens for acknowledge on port 1. I have a while loop which implements timeout
Code:
DateTime TimeAtStart = new DateTime();
TimeAtStart = DateTime.Now;
TimeSpan TimeOut = new TimeSpan(0,0,0,0,800);
IntPtr RecievedTelPtr = new IntPtr();
bool UnpackingResult;
while (TimeOut > (DateTime.Now - TimeAtStart))
{
if (!NackAckRecieveConnection.GetIsReady())
{
ErrorEventArguements.SetAllHmiNetworkEventArgs(ID, -3, 2);
return (false);
}
if (NackAckRecieveConnection.NewMessageReceived())
{
RecievedTelPtr = NackAckRecieveConnection.GetMessage();
UnpackingResult = UnpackHmiTelegram(RecievedTelPtr, AckNackType);
NackAckRecieveConnection.MessageRetrieved();
return (UnpackingResult);
}
}
//if escape loop return timeout err msg
ErrorEventArguements.SetAllHmiNetworkEventArgs(ID, -4, (AckNackType == 0) ? (1) : (3));
return (false);
I would like to be able to understand the issue and why the problem occurs and how can I fix it as I have fun out of ideas.
Thank you
I'm not answering the question, but I do need to point out something very important:
catch (Exception)
{
this._isReady = false;
return this._isReady;
}
Do NOT hide exceptions like that. When something fails you will have no chance what so ever to try to fix it, since you will never know why something failed. Do use proper exception handling.
Due to the application I need fast, non blocking operation of the UDP socket
That statement is not correct. Non-blocking sockets are not faster, they simply return before the operation has completed.
I do recommend that you switch back to blocking sockets, since you seem to be new to socket programming. Get the application running first, then try to optimize it.
You are setting the socket that you're reading messages from to non-blocking. This instructs the socket to NOT BLOCK if the operation cannot be completed immediately. What this means in practical terms is that if you attempt to read from the socket and there is nothing waiting to be read, the call will not return successfully.
I don't know how MessageReceived is being called, however I would assume that whatever is calling it is not checking that information is actually ready to be read from the socket, prior to the call.
As you're experiencing an intermittent problem, it would suggest that most of the time, the when MessageReceived is being called, there is data to be read from the socket.
If you want to continue to use non-blocking IO, you need to either change your logic, so that it catches the IO exception and retrys after a short delay (if you're sure there's going to be data there), or check to see if there is actually data available to be read from the socket, prior to attempting to perform the read.
One way to check if there is information available on the socket (prior to attempting to read from it) would be to use Socket.Poll. Something like:
if (_myUDPClient.Poll(myTimeoutInMicroSeconds, SelectMode.SelectRead)){
// Try to read the new messsage
} else {
continue; // go back to top of loop and try again
}
You may also need to check for SelectError state, to determine if the socket has a failure. Most of my socket programming has been from C++, so I'm not sure about the .Net specifics.

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