I feel, that I am misunderstanding something about async sockets in .Net. The situation is as follows : I have 1 async socket client and 1 async socket server. They communicate without any visible problems, but when I close listener and disconnect clients, the "OnConnectRequest" which is bound to "BeginAccept" as a callback, still gets called at least once. The "BeginReceive", "OnConnectRequest", "Disconnect" and "Dispose" methods are :
public void BeginReceive()
{
_listener.Bind(_endpoint);
_listener.Listen(_maxConnections);
try
{
_listener.BeginAccept(new AsyncCallback(OnConnectRequest), _listener);
}
catch (SocketException se)
{
OnListeningError(this, new Exception("Server cannot accept connections due to network shutdown or some fatal failure", se));
}
}
protected void OnConnectRequest(IAsyncResult ar)
{
Socket listener = (Socket)ar.AsyncState;
Socket client = listener.EndAccept(ar);
var remoteEndpoint = client.RemoteEndPoint;
IDuplexStateObject state = new DuplexStateObject();
state.WorkSocket = client;
if (_clients.Count <= _maxConnections)
{
lock (_clients)
{
_clients.Add(state);
}
OnConnected(this, state);
}
else
{
//denying connection
client.Close();
AcceptingError(this, null, new Exception(string.Format("Maximal connection count reached, connection attempt {0} has been denied", (remoteEndpoint != null) ? remoteEndpoint.ToString() : null)));
}
//accept connections from other clients
try
{
listener.BeginAccept(new AsyncCallback(OnConnectRequest), listener);
}
catch (SocketException se)
{
if (se.SocketErrorCode == SocketError.TooManyOpenSockets)
{
OnListeningError(this, new Exception("Maximal connection count reached, not possible to create any more connections"));
}
else
{
OnListeningError(this, new Exception("Server cannot accept connections due to network shutdown or some fatal failure"));
}
}
}
public void Disconnect(IStateObject state)
{
if (state.WorkSocket == null)
{
//OnDisconnectError(this, state.ClientInfo,
// new Exception("No underlying work socket found for client. Already disconnected, disposing connection..."));
OnDisconnected(this, state.ClientInfo);
return;
}
try
{
if (state.WorkSocket.Connected)
{
state.WorkSocket.Shutdown(SocketShutdown.Both);
}
state.WorkSocket.Close();
}
catch (SocketException se)
{
OnDisconnectError(this, state.ClientInfo, se);
}
OnDisconnected(this, state.ClientInfo);
lock (_clients)
{
_clients.Remove(state);
}
}
public void Dispose()
{
_listener.Close();
//keys are cloned before disconnecting
foreach (var client in _clients.ToList())
{
Disconnect(client);
}
}
What I am doing is calling "Dispose" to closes listener and shut down all client sockets. The client is then still active, and it tries to reconnect, but what I expected to happen was server being completely unavailable on corresponding IP and port. What I see instead is "OnConnectRequest" callback being called, which crashes because of attempt to use already disposed socket. Can you please explain, what is wrong here, and how graceful shutdown of a listener and all accepted connections should look like ?
No, this is correct -- the callback you specify in a Begin... operation will always be called, even if you close the socket (if you close the socket, it will be called because of that). You should be catching the ObjectDisposedException you get on the EndAccept and then return without further action. Closing/disposing a socket/listener is the only way to cancel an asynchronous operation on it. (EndAccept can also produce SocketException, which should be handled normally.)
Using a flag you maintain yourself to check if the listener is still available is asking for trouble, because you're introducing shared state that needs to be synchronized (volatile reads and the like). You can easily introduce race conditions that way. The listener already maintains such a flag for you internally, which it uses to throw ObjectDisposedException, so I'd just use that. It's true that under normal circumstances catching ObjectDisposedException is a possible sign of a coding error (since you're supposed to know when an object is disposed), but with asynchronous code it's pretty standard.
I feel, that I am misunderstanding something about async sockets in .Net. The situation is as follows : I have 1 async socket client and 1 async socket server. They communicate without any visible problems, but when I close listener and disconnect clients, the "OnConnectRequest" which is bound to "BeginAccept" as a callback, still gets called at least once. The "BeginReceive", "OnConnectRequest", "Disconnect" and "Dispose" methods are :
public void BeginReceive()
{
_listener.Bind(_endpoint);
_listener.Listen(_maxConnections);
try
{
_listener.BeginAccept(new AsyncCallback(OnConnectRequest), _listener);
}
catch (SocketException se)
{
OnListeningError(this, new Exception("Server cannot accept connections due to network shutdown or some fatal failure", se));
}
}
protected void OnConnectRequest(IAsyncResult ar)
{
Socket listener = (Socket)ar.AsyncState;
Socket client = listener.EndAccept(ar);
var remoteEndpoint = client.RemoteEndPoint;
IDuplexStateObject state = new DuplexStateObject();
state.WorkSocket = client;
if (_clients.Count <= _maxConnections)
{
lock (_clients)
{
_clients.Add(state);
}
OnConnected(this, state);
}
else
{
//denying connection
client.Close();
AcceptingError(this, null, new Exception(string.Format("Maximal connection count reached, connection attempt {0} has been denied", (remoteEndpoint != null) ? remoteEndpoint.ToString() : null)));
}
//accept connections from other clients
try
{
listener.BeginAccept(new AsyncCallback(OnConnectRequest), listener);
}
catch (SocketException se)
{
if (se.SocketErrorCode == SocketError.TooManyOpenSockets)
{
OnListeningError(this, new Exception("Maximal connection count reached, not possible to create any more connections"));
}
else
{
OnListeningError(this, new Exception("Server cannot accept connections due to network shutdown or some fatal failure"));
}
}
}
public void Disconnect(IStateObject state)
{
if (state.WorkSocket == null)
{
//OnDisconnectError(this, state.ClientInfo,
// new Exception("No underlying work socket found for client. Already disconnected, disposing connection..."));
OnDisconnected(this, state.ClientInfo);
return;
}
try
{
if (state.WorkSocket.Connected)
{
state.WorkSocket.Shutdown(SocketShutdown.Both);
}
state.WorkSocket.Close();
}
catch (SocketException se)
{
OnDisconnectError(this, state.ClientInfo, se);
}
OnDisconnected(this, state.ClientInfo);
lock (_clients)
{
_clients.Remove(state);
}
}
public void Dispose()
{
_listener.Close();
//keys are cloned before disconnecting
foreach (var client in _clients.ToList())
{
Disconnect(client);
}
}
What I am doing is calling "Dispose" to closes listener and shut down all client sockets. The client is then still active, and it tries to reconnect, but what I expected to happen was server being completely unavailable on corresponding IP and port. What I see instead is "OnConnectRequest" callback being called, which crashes because of attempt to use already disposed socket. Can you please explain, what is wrong here, and how graceful shutdown of a listener and all accepted connections should look like ?
No, this is correct -- the callback you specify in a Begin... operation will always be called, even if you close the socket (if you close the socket, it will be called because of that). You should be catching the ObjectDisposedException you get on the EndAccept and then return without further action. Closing/disposing a socket/listener is the only way to cancel an asynchronous operation on it. (EndAccept can also produce SocketException, which should be handled normally.)
Using a flag you maintain yourself to check if the listener is still available is asking for trouble, because you're introducing shared state that needs to be synchronized (volatile reads and the like). You can easily introduce race conditions that way. The listener already maintains such a flag for you internally, which it uses to throw ObjectDisposedException, so I'd just use that. It's true that under normal circumstances catching ObjectDisposedException is a possible sign of a coding error (since you're supposed to know when an object is disposed), but with asynchronous code it's pretty standard.
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.
I have the following source code from ms site: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/fx6588te.aspx
I'm trying to detect when the client has closed connection.
One way I tried was to keep sending data to client until I get exception. I created a new thread which gets executed once at onDataReceive, but I get an error "Cannot access disposed object" on:
m_workerSocket[socket_id].Send(bytes);
but if I put it in directly in onDataReceive it works fine. Why do I get this exception when trying to access socket from another thread?
Then I found the second solution:
static class SocketExtensions
{
public static bool IsConnected(this Socket socket)
{
try
{
return !(socket.Poll(1, SelectMode.SelectRead) && socket.Available == 0);
}
catch (SocketException) { return false; }
}
}
Which I wanted to run in a separate thread too, to check whenever socket gets closed, but I get the same error. I only get error if I try to do this from a thread, if I place both solutions in one of the functions, they execute fine. Any ideas how to get this running from a thread?
Try this code:
public static void ReadCallback(IAsyncResult ar)
{
String content = String.Empty;
// Retrieve the state object and the handler socket from the asynchronous state object.
StateObject state = (StateObject)ar.AsyncState;
Socket handler = state.workSocket;
if (handler != null && !handler.Poll(1, SelectMode.SelectRead) && handler.Connected && handler.Available == 0)
{
// Read data from the client socket.
int bytesRead = handler.EndReceive(ar);
if (bytesRead > 0)
{
// Parsing data received in here..
// Enabled received for next data
handler.BeginReceive(state.buffer, 0, StateObject.BufferSize, 0, new AsyncCallback(ReadCallback), state);
}
}
else
{
if (handler.Connected)
{
// Client are offline will be detected here
IPEndPoint clientIP = handler.RemoteEndPoint as IPEndPoint;
MessageBox.Show(String.Format("IP Client: {0}:{1} disconnected", clientIP.Address, clientIP.Port));
}
{
// Server are offline will be detected here
}
}
}
If only problem is to determine when client is disconnected:
I had the same problem in my socket server, and finally I decided to send disconnect "flag" from any client to server when it's disconnected.
All you have to do is handle your unload function correctly for your clients to detect a client side abnormal close. The client.connected is not very reliable on the server side but this should help.
IE...
protected override void UnloadContent()
{
// TODO: Unload any non ContentManager content here
if (client != null)
client.Close(); // I exist so close the connection...
// I would place a timout on the server side
// client.Available as well to drop inactive clients...
System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(3000); // Force the Client to stay open long enough to communicate a closure...
}
Test-cases:
Before connection starts it should return false
Connection is closed by other end return false
Connection is closed by the client return false
Connection exists even if no data is avaliable return true
class MyConnection
{
//Assume I have all initialization for _socket
public bool IsConnected()
{
return !(_socket.Poll(1, SelectMode.SelectRead)
&& _socket.Available == 0);
}
private Socket _socket;
}
class Test
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
MyConnection my = new MyConnection()
if(my.IsConnected())
/*always return true even when I am not connected*/;
}
}
Any ideas how to prevent that?
So far, none of the answers were satisfactory....
The following can be done:
public bool IsConnected()
{
bool bConnected = false;
bool bState = _socket.Poll(1, SelectMode.SelectRead);
try
{
if (bState && (_socket.Available == 0))
bConnected = false;
else
bConnected = true;
}
catch (SocketException)
{
//_socket.Available can throw an exception
bConnected = false;
}
return bConnected;
}
I think your _socket.Poll() call is backwards. If the poll fails, that will help the method evaluate as true rather than false. Try this:
public bool IsConnected()
{
return !(!_socket.Poll(1, SelectMode.SelectRead)
&& _socket.Available == 0);
}
I'm also not sure it's a good idea to make _socket.Available part of this check. According to the documentation, a return value of 0 just means that "no data is queued in the network buffer." That could very easily be true even of a connected socket.
I'm not sure exactly what you're trying to achieve, but assuming you're trying to tell if the connection has been broken, this post may be helpful:
How can I tell if the connection has been broken in my sockets based client?
Edit: A troubleshooting step would be to determine which of the two boolean expressions are returning false, or if they are both returning false.
It looks to me like you may not get the functionality you are expecting from the Socket class. My understanding is that the Socket class is only aware of the connection state as of the last socket operation.
Note that the Poll method has some limitations:
This method cannot detect certain kinds of connection problems, such as a broken network cable, or that the remote host was shut down ungracefully. You must attempt to send or receive data to detect these kinds of errors.
This would imply that in the event of an ungraceful disconnect, it would be normal for a socket to continue to report true until a subsequent socket operation times out (which may explain the several minute delay you experienced in your previous post on this).
This means that if you want to detect ungraceful disconnects, you will likely need to implement an application level heartbeat/ping, as suggested in a previous answer. You may need to play with the interval between the pings, otherwise you lose a degree of fault tolerance and a lag spike may cause unwanted reports of a disconnect.