Develop Reference

Unable to read data from tcp server

I have created a simple C# client application. Once it connects to the server it should read the messages sent from the server. It also has the ability to send messages to server too. However I am unable to figure out to correct way to read the data.
I am spawning a thread once it connects to the server. The thread runs in infinite loop and have two interfaces each for reading and writing. Connect() method is called from a ButtonClick event.
My code snippet is as below:
namespace WpfApp1
{
public class TCPClientClass
{
private StreamWriter SwSender;
NetworkStream Sender;
NetworkStream Receiver;
//private StreamReader SrReciever;
private Thread thrMessaging;
TcpClient tcp;
bool connected = false;
public bool Connected { get { return connected; } set { connected = value; } }
//public bool Connect(IPAddress IP, int nPortNo)
public async Task Connect(IPAddress IP, int nPortNo)
{
tcp = new TcpClient();
try
{
//tcp.Connect(strIPAddress.Parse("192.168.137.1"), 2000);
// tcp.Connect(IP , nPortNo);
await tcp.ConnectAsync(IP, nPortNo);
thrMessaging = new Thread(new ThreadStart(ThreadFunction));
thrMessaging.Start();
Connected = true;
}
catch
{
MessageBox.Show("Unable to connect to server");
//return false;
}
//return true;
}
public void Disconnect()
{
Sender?.Close();
Receiver?.Close();
tcp?.Close();
//tcp?.Client.Disconnect(false);
thrMessaging.Abort();
Connected = false;
}
private void ThreadFunction()
{
while (thrMessaging.IsAlive)
DoTasks();
}
private void DoTasks()
{
if (Connected)
{
var a = ReadMessages();
SendMessages();
}
}
private /*void*/async Task ReadMessages()
{
byte[] data = new byte[4096];
//Int32 bytesRead = 0;
//Task<int> bytesReadTask;
String responseData = String.Empty;
Receiver = tcp.GetStream();
try
{
//bytesReadTask = Receiver.ReadAsync(data, 0, data.Length);
//responseData = System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetString(data, 0, bytesReadTask.Result);
var response = await Receiver.ReadAsync(data, 0, data.Length);
MessageBox.Show("Server response was " + response);
Thread.Sleep(1000);
}
catch (Exception e)
{
MessageBox.Show(e.Message);
}
}
private void SendMessages()
{
try
{
string strSendData = "Hello from GUI";
Byte[] data = System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(strSendData);
Sender = tcp.GetStream();
Sender.Write(data, 0, data.Length);
Sender.Flush();
Thread.Sleep(1000);
}
catch (Exception e)
{
MessageBox.Show(e.Message);
}
}
}
}

you should change
var response = await Receiver.ReadAsync(data, 0, data.Length);
MessageBox.Show("Server response was " + response);
to
var response = await Receiver.ReadAsync(data, 0, data.Length);
string result = System.Text.Encoding.Default.GetString(data);
MessageBox.Show("Server response was " + result);
if you´re still having problems..my server Code:
public class tcpServer
{
public void method()
{
TcpListener server = new TcpListener(IPAddress.Any, 9999);
server.Start();
TcpClient client = server.AcceptTcpClient();
NetworkStream ns = client.GetStream();
byte[] hello = new byte[100];
hello = Encoding.Default.GetBytes("hello world");
while (client.Connected)
{
ns.Write(hello, 0, hello.Length);
}
}
}

C# WebSocket.SendAsync() randomly gets stuck

I have used the following code to send using the System.Net.WebSocket from WPF after socket has connected
try
{
Console.WriteLine("Sending...");
await _ws.SendAsync(new ArraySegment<byte>(packet.GetBytes()), WebSocketMessageType.Binary, true, CancellationToken.None);
Console.WriteLine("Sent...");
}
catch(Exception e)
{
Console.WriteLine(e.Message);
}
Calling code
if (!ValidateSettings()) return;
var hostname = TbHostname.Text.Trim();
var tcpport = TbTcpPort.Text.Trim();
_ws = new AchiWebSocket();
_streamTimer = new System.Threading.Timer(async s =>
{
var socket = (AchiWebSocket)s;
if (!_semaWs.Wait(0)) return;
UpdateBuffer();
var buffer = GetFrameBuffer();
var packet = new BinaryPacket(buffer.GetBytes());
if(socket.WebSocketState == null || socket.WebSocketState == WebSocketState.Closed)
await socket.Connect(new Uri("ws://" + hostname + "/superrfb"));
try
{
await socket.SendAsync(packet);
}
catch(Exception e)
{
Console.WriteLine("--" + e.Message);
}
finally
{
_semaWs.Release();
}
}, _ws, 0, 70);
Receiving Code (Asp.Net Core)
public async Task StartReceiveAsync(Action<Packet> onReceive)
{
WebSocketReceiveResult result;
var buffer = new byte[4 * 1024];
var stream = new MemoryStream();
do
{
result = await _ws.ReceiveAsync(new ArraySegment<byte>(buffer), CancellationToken.None);
await stream.WriteAsync(buffer, 0, result.Count);
if (result.EndOfMessage)
{
var packet = BinaryPacket.FromRaw(stream.ToArray());
onReceive.Invoke(packet);
}
}
while (!result.CloseStatus.HasValue);
Dispose();
}
I do receive some data but the socket gets stuck in SendAsync after a few packets. It doesn't return even after waiting several minutes.

Ok I figured it out. My onReceive.Invoke() function was throwing exception sometimes causing the server to stop receiving. This made the receive buffer fill up and WebSocket.SendAsync to stuck and wait until the buffer is free. After wrapping the onReceive.Invoke() in try catch, the code is working fine now.
try
{
onReceive.Invoke(packet);
}
catch(Exception e)
{
Debug.WriteLine(e.Message);
}

Async TCPClient missing replies from server

I'm trying to implement an async TCP client that sends messages from a queue and listens to the response.
some of the server replies are lost (for example send 7 messages and get only 4 replies) and I don't understand why.
This is not a server issue, since the synchronize version I tested works just fine.
ConcurrentQueue<byte[]> msgQueue = new ConcurrentQueue<byte[]>();
public void Connect()
{
try
{
tcpclnt = new TcpClient();
Console.WriteLine("Connecting.....");
Task.Factory.StartNew(() =>
{
IAsyncResult res = tcpclnt.BeginConnect(_ip, _port, null, null);
if (!res.AsyncWaitHandle.WaitOne(CONNECTION_TIMEOUT_SEC * 1000))
{
tcpclnt.Close();
throw new ApplicationException("timed out trying to connect");
}
tcpclnt.EndConnect(res);
Receive();
byte[] message = null;
while (true)
{
message = null;
msgQueue.TryDequeue(out message);
if (message != null)
{
Stream stm = tcpclnt.GetStream();
Console.WriteLine("Transmitting..... " + Thread.CurrentThread.ManagedThreadId);//for debug
stm.Write(message.ToArray(), 0, message.ToArray().Length);
Receive();
}
}
});
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
Console.WriteLine(ex.ToString());
}
}
//will be called from outside
public void SendMessage(byte[] msg)
{
Console.WriteLine("SendMessage..... " + Thread.CurrentThread.ManagedThreadId);//for debug
msgQueue.Enqueue(msg);
}
private void Receive()
{
SocketError error;
byte[] buffer = new byte[MAX_BUFFER_SIZE];
tcpclnt.Client.BeginReceive(buffer, 0, MAX_BUFFER_SIZE, SocketFlags.None, out error, new AsyncCallback(ReceiveHandler), buffer);
}
private void ReceiveHandler(IAsyncResult ar)
{
System.Console.WriteLine("ReceiveHandler " + Thread.CurrentThread.ManagedThreadId); //for debug
//End current async receive
int bytesRead = tcpclnt.Client.EndReceive(ar);
byte[] resultBuffer = (byte[]) ar.AsyncState;
// do a lot of things with resultBuffer
}

How to gracefully close a two-way WebSocket in .Net

I have a WebSocket server that accepts a stream of binary data from a client and responds with another stream of text data for every 4MB read. The server uses IIS 8 and asp.net web api.
Server
public class WebSocketController : ApiController
{
public HttpResponseMessage Get()
{
if (!HttpContext.Current.IsWebSocketRequest)
{
return new HttpResponseMessage(HttpStatusCode.BadRequest);
}
HttpContext.Current.AcceptWebSocketRequest(async (context) =>
{
try
{
WebSocket socket = context.WebSocket;
byte[] requestBuffer = new byte[4194304];
int offset = 0;
while (socket.State == WebSocketState.Open)
{
var requestSegment = new ArraySegment<byte>(requestBuffer, offset, requestBuffer.Length - offset);
WebSocketReceiveResult result = await socket.ReceiveAsync(requestSegment, CancellationToken.None);
if (result.MessageType == WebSocketMessageType.Close)
{
// Send one last response before closing
var response = new ArraySegment<byte>(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes("Server got " + offset + " bytes\n"));
await socket.SendAsync(response, WebSocketMessageType.Text, true, CancellationToken.None);
// Close
await socket.CloseAsync(WebSocketCloseStatus.NormalClosure, string.Empty, CancellationToken.None);
break;
}
offset += result.Count;
if (offset == requestBuffer.Length)
{
// Regular response
var response = new ArraySegment<byte>(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes("Server got 4194304 bytes\n"));
await socket.SendAsync(response, WebSocketMessageType.Text, true, CancellationToken.None);
offset = 0;
}
}
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
// Log and continue
}
});
return new HttpResponseMessage(HttpStatusCode.SwitchingProtocols);
}
}
The c# client uses the ClientWebSocket class to connect to the server and send requests. It creates a task for receiving responses from the server that runs in parallel with the request sending. When it is done sending the requests it calls CloseAsync on the socket and then waits for the Receive task to complete.
Client
using System;
using System.Net.WebSockets;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
namespace WebSocketClient
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
try
{
CallWebSocketServer().Wait();
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
Console.WriteLine(ex);
}
}
static async Task CallWebSocketServer()
{
using (ClientWebSocket socket = new ClientWebSocket())
{
await socket.ConnectAsync(new Uri("ws://localhost/RestWebController"), CancellationToken.None);
byte[] buffer = new byte[128 * 1024];
Task receiveTask = Receive(socket);
for (int i = 0; i < 1024; ++i)
{
await socket.SendAsync(new ArraySegment<byte>(buffer), WebSocketMessageType.Binary, true, CancellationToken.None);
}
await socket.CloseAsync(WebSocketCloseStatus.NormalClosure, string.Empty, CancellationToken.None);
receiveTask.Wait();
Console.WriteLine("All done");
}
}
static async Task Receive(ClientWebSocket socket)
{
try
{
byte[] recvBuffer = new byte[64 * 1024];
while (socket.State == WebSocketState.Open)
{
var result = await socket.ReceiveAsync(new ArraySegment<byte>(recvBuffer), CancellationToken.None);
Console.WriteLine("Client got {0} bytes", result.Count);
Console.WriteLine(Encoding.UTF8.GetString(recvBuffer, 0, result.Count));
if (result.MessageType == WebSocketMessageType.Close)
{
Console.WriteLine("Close loop complete");
break;
}
}
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
Console.WriteLine("Exception in receive - {0}", ex.Message);
}
}
}
}
The problem is that the client blocks at the CloseAsync call.
What would be the correct way of gracefully closing the WebSocket in this scenario?

Figured this out.
Server
Basically, I had to call the ClientWebSocket.CloseOutputAsync (instead of the CloseAsync) method to tell the framework no more output is going to be sent from the client.
await socket.CloseOutputAsync(WebSocketCloseStatus.NormalClosure, string.Empty, CancellationToken.None);
Client
Then in the Receive function, I had to allow for socket state WebSocketState.CloseSent to receive the Close response from the server
static async Task Receive(ClientWebSocket socket)
{
try
{
byte[] recvBuffer = new byte[64 * 1024];
while (socket.State == WebSocketState.Open || socket.State == WebSocketState.CloseSent)
{
var result = await socket.ReceiveAsync(new ArraySegment<byte>(recvBuffer), CancellationToken.None);
Console.WriteLine("Client got {0} bytes", result.Count);
Console.WriteLine(Encoding.UTF8.GetString(recvBuffer, 0, result.Count));
if (result.MessageType == WebSocketMessageType.Close)
{
Console.WriteLine("Close loop complete");
break;
}
}
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
Console.WriteLine("Exception in receive - {0}", ex.Message);
}
}

i suggest you to look at these links:
asynchronous server:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/fx6588te%28v=vs.110%29.aspx
asynchronous client:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bew39x2a(v=vs.110).aspx
recently i implementled something similar with these links as an example. the methods "BeginReceive" (for server) and "BeginConnect" (for client) start each a new thread. so there won't be anything that blocks

TcpClient.BeginConnect takes too much time to finish with wrong IPs [duplicate]

I have a TcpClient which I use to send data to a listener on a remote computer. The remote computer will sometimes be on and sometimes off. Because of this, the TcpClient will fail to connect often. I want the TcpClient to timeout after one second, so it doesn't take much time when it can't connect to the remote computer. Currently, I use this code for the TcpClient:
try
{
TcpClient client = new TcpClient("remotehost", this.Port);
client.SendTimeout = 1000;
Byte[] data = System.Text.Encoding.Unicode.GetBytes(this.Message);
NetworkStream stream = client.GetStream();
stream.Write(data, 0, data.Length);
data = new Byte[512];
Int32 bytes = stream.Read(data, 0, data.Length);
this.Response = System.Text.Encoding.Unicode.GetString(data, 0, bytes);
stream.Close();
client.Close();
FireSentEvent(); //Notifies of success
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
FireFailedEvent(ex); //Notifies of failure
}
This works well enough for handling the task. It sends it if it can, and catches the exception if it can't connect to the remote computer. However, when it can't connect, it takes ten to fifteen seconds to throw the exception. I need it to time out in around one second? How would I change the time out time?

Starting with .NET 4.5, TcpClient has a cool ConnectAsync method that we can use like this, so it's now pretty easy:
var client = new TcpClient();
if (!client.ConnectAsync("remotehost", remotePort).Wait(1000))
{
// connection failure
}

You would need to use the async BeginConnect method of TcpClient instead of attempting to connect synchronously, which is what the constructor does. Something like this:
var client = new TcpClient();
var result = client.BeginConnect("remotehost", this.Port, null, null);
var success = result.AsyncWaitHandle.WaitOne(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1));
if (!success)
{
throw new Exception("Failed to connect.");
}
// we have connected
client.EndConnect(result);

Another alternative using https://stackoverflow.com/a/25684549/3975786:
var timeOut = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(5);
var cancellationCompletionSource = new TaskCompletionSource<bool>();
try
{
using (var cts = new CancellationTokenSource(timeOut))
{
using (var client = new TcpClient())
{
var task = client.ConnectAsync(hostUri, portNumber);
using (cts.Token.Register(() => cancellationCompletionSource.TrySetResult(true)))
{
if (task != await Task.WhenAny(task, cancellationCompletionSource.Task))
{
throw new OperationCanceledException(cts.Token);
}
}
...
}
}
}
catch(OperationCanceledException)
{
...
}

The answers above don't cover how to cleanly deal with a connection that has timed out. Calling TcpClient.EndConnect, closing a connection that succeeds but after the timeout, and disposing of the TcpClient.
It may be overkill but this works for me.
private class State
{
public TcpClient Client { get; set; }
public bool Success { get; set; }
}
public TcpClient Connect(string hostName, int port, int timeout)
{
var client = new TcpClient();
//when the connection completes before the timeout it will cause a race
//we want EndConnect to always treat the connection as successful if it wins
var state = new State { Client = client, Success = true };
IAsyncResult ar = client.BeginConnect(hostName, port, EndConnect, state);
state.Success = ar.AsyncWaitHandle.WaitOne(timeout, false);
if (!state.Success || !client.Connected)
throw new Exception("Failed to connect.");
return client;
}
void EndConnect(IAsyncResult ar)
{
var state = (State)ar.AsyncState;
TcpClient client = state.Client;
try
{
client.EndConnect(ar);
}
catch { }
if (client.Connected && state.Success)
return;
client.Close();
}

One thing to take note of is that it is possible for the BeginConnect call to fail before the timeout expires. This may happen if you are attempting a local connection. Here's a modified version of Jon's code...
var client = new TcpClient();
var result = client.BeginConnect("remotehost", Port, null, null);
result.AsyncWaitHandle.WaitOne(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1));
if (!client.Connected)
{
throw new Exception("Failed to connect.");
}
// we have connected
client.EndConnect(result);

Here is a code improvement based on mcandal solution.
Added exception catching for any exception generated from the client.ConnectAsync task (e.g: SocketException when server is unreachable)
var timeOut = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(5);
var cancellationCompletionSource = new TaskCompletionSource<bool>();
try
{
using (var cts = new CancellationTokenSource(timeOut))
{
using (var client = new TcpClient())
{
var task = client.ConnectAsync(hostUri, portNumber);
using (cts.Token.Register(() => cancellationCompletionSource.TrySetResult(true)))
{
if (task != await Task.WhenAny(task, cancellationCompletionSource.Task))
{
throw new OperationCanceledException(cts.Token);
}
// throw exception inside 'task' (if any)
if (task.Exception?.InnerException != null)
{
throw task.Exception.InnerException;
}
}
...
}
}
}
catch (OperationCanceledException operationCanceledEx)
{
// connection timeout
...
}
catch (SocketException socketEx)
{
...
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
...
}

As Simon Mourier mentioned, it's possible to use ConnectAsync TcpClient's method with Task in addition and stop operation as soon as possible.
For example:
// ...
client = new TcpClient(); // Initialization of TcpClient
CancellationToken ct = new CancellationToken(); // Required for "*.Task()" method
if (client.ConnectAsync(this.ip, this.port).Wait(1000, ct)) // Connect with timeout of 1 second
{
// ... transfer
if (client != null) {
client.Close(); // Close the connection and dispose a TcpClient object
Console.WriteLine("Success");
ct.ThrowIfCancellationRequested(); // Stop asynchronous operation after successull connection(...and transfer(in needed))
}
}
else
{
Console.WriteLine("Connetion timed out");
}
// ...
Also, I would recommended checking out AsyncTcpClient C# library with some examples provided like Server <> Client.

If using async & await and desire to use a time out without blocking, then an alternative and simpler approach from the answer provide by mcandal is to execute the connect on a background thread and await the result. For example:
Task<bool> t = Task.Run(() => client.ConnectAsync(ipAddr, port).Wait(1000));
await t;
if (!t.Result)
{
Console.WriteLine("Connect timed out");
return; // Set/return an error code or throw here.
}
// Successful Connection - if we get to here.
See the Task.Wait MSDN article for more info and other examples.

I am using these generic methods; they can add timeout and cancellation tokens for any async task. Let me know if you see any problem so I can fix it accordingly.
public static async Task<T> RunTask<T>(Task<T> task, int timeout = 0, CancellationToken cancellationToken = default)
{
await RunTask((Task)task, timeout, cancellationToken);
return await task;
}
public static async Task RunTask(Task task, int timeout = 0, CancellationToken cancellationToken = default)
{
if (timeout == 0) timeout = -1;
var timeoutTask = Task.Delay(timeout, cancellationToken);
await Task.WhenAny(task, timeoutTask);
cancellationToken.ThrowIfCancellationRequested();
if (timeoutTask.IsCompleted)
throw new TimeoutException();
await task;
}
Usage
await RunTask(tcpClient.ConnectAsync("yourhost.com", 443), timeout: 1000);