Sending and receiving UDP packets between two programs on the same computer - c#

Is it possible to get two separate programs to communicate on the same computer (one-way only) over UDP through localhost/127... by sharing the same port #?
We're working on a student project in which we need to send UDP packets containing some telemetry between two computers. The program that generates these packets is proprietary, but I'm working on the receiver program myself with C# using System.Net.Sockets.UdpClient and System.Net.IPEndPoint.
This works fine during our group's meetings when we have multiple computers connected on which we can run the two programs separately. But it's not very useful when I'm home and trying to expand on the telemetry processing program as I only have one computer (I need a feed for testing the processing program). I can not install the program on any of the school's computers either.
When I try to run both programs on my computer at the same time (starting my program last) I get a SocketException saying that only a single use of each port is normally allowed. Which leads me to believe there must be some way to share the port (although it makes sense that only a single program can use port on a computer at any one time, I have no trouble running multiple internet browsers at the same time (and I suppose they use port 80 for http)).
REEDIT of the EDIT:
sipwiz was right, and thanks to Kalmi for the pointer to UdpClient.Client.Bind().
At the time, though, we are considering using another program that generates similar packets, and with which we are able to share port with on the same computer using my first (although naive) approach with the UDP client binding in the ctor.
Sorry for having to unmark your answer, sysrqb.

You can bind to a port multiple times using the ReuseAddress socket option.
UdpClient udpClient = new UdpClient();
udpClient.Client.SetSocketOption(SocketOptionLevel.Socket, SocketOptionName.ReuseAddress, true);
You'll need to set the same option on the UDP server socket as well.

I did not expect this to be possible, but.. well.. sipwiz was right.
It can be done very easily. (Please vote sipwiz's answer up!)
IPEndPoint localpt = new IPEndPoint(IPAddress.Any, 6000);
//Failed try
try
{
var u = new UdpClient(5000);
u.Client.SetSocketOption(SocketOptionLevel.Socket, SocketOptionName.ReuseAddress, true);
UdpClient u2 = new UdpClient(5000);//KABOOM
u2.Client.SetSocketOption(SocketOptionLevel.Socket, SocketOptionName.ReuseAddress, true);
}
catch (Exception)
{
Console.WriteLine("ERROR! You must call Bind only after setting SocketOptionName.ReuseAddress. \n And you must not pass any parameter to UdpClient's constructor or it will call Bind.");
}
//This is how you do it (kudos to sipwiz)
UdpClient udpServer = new UdpClient(localpt); //This is what the proprietary(see question) sender would do (nothing special)
//!!! The following 3 lines is what the poster needs...(and the definition of localpt (of course))
UdpClient udpServer2 = new UdpClient();
udpServer2.Client.SetSocketOption(SocketOptionLevel.Socket, SocketOptionName.ReuseAddress, true);
udpServer2.Client.Bind(localpt);

Here is the full code from the answers by Tarnay Kálmán and sipwiz:
The server code:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Net;
using System.Net.Sockets;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
namespace UdpBroadcastTest
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
Console.WriteLine("Sender");
// This constructor arbitrarily assigns the local port number.
UdpClient udpClient = new UdpClient();
udpClient.Client.SetSocketOption(SocketOptionLevel.Socket, SocketOptionName.ReuseAddress, true);
udpClient.Connect("localhost", 11000);
try
{
string message = String.Empty;
do
{
message = Console.ReadLine();
// Sends a message to the host to which you have connected.
Byte[] sendBytes = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(message);
udpClient.Send(sendBytes, sendBytes.Length);
} while (message != String.Empty);
udpClient.Close();
}
catch (Exception e)
{
Console.WriteLine(e.ToString());
}
Console.WriteLine("Press Any Key to Continue");
Console.ReadKey();
}
}
}
The client code:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Net;
using System.Net.Sockets;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
namespace UdpReciever
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
Console.WriteLine("Receiver");
// This constructor arbitrarily assigns the local port number.
UdpClient udpClient = new UdpClient();
udpClient.Client.SetSocketOption(SocketOptionLevel.Socket, SocketOptionName.ReuseAddress, true);
udpClient.Client.Bind(new IPEndPoint(IPAddress.Any, 11000));
try
{
//IPEndPoint object will allow us to read datagrams sent from any source.
IPEndPoint RemoteIpEndPoint = new IPEndPoint(IPAddress.Any, 0);
string message = String.Empty;
do
{
// Blocks until a message returns on this socket from a remote host.
Byte[] receiveBytes = udpClient.Receive(ref RemoteIpEndPoint);
message = Encoding.ASCII.GetString(receiveBytes);
// Uses the IPEndPoint object to determine which of these two hosts responded.
Console.WriteLine("This is the message you received: " +
message);
//Console.WriteLine("This message was sent from " +
// RemoteIpEndPoint.Address.ToString() +
// " on their port number " +
// RemoteIpEndPoint.Port.ToString());
}
while (message != "exit");
udpClient.Close();
//udpClientB.Close();
}
catch (Exception e)
{
Console.WriteLine(e.ToString());
}
Console.WriteLine("Press Any Key to Continue");
Console.ReadKey();
}
}
}

You might be able to put multiple IP addresses on your network card, or loopback, and bind the server and client to different IP addresses?
Or else the Virtual machine approach will definitely work.

Only one program can bind to a port at a time. Multiple programs can connect to one port on another system's, but the local port your different web browsers have bound themselves to is randomly assigned.
Unless you want to do some ugly inter-process communication or packet sniffing, there's no way to have multiple programs bound to one port.

Even changing your code so that I can pass in an IP address I gets the same error message it appears that you can't bind to the same port and only one port can be used
here is the sample code I used your example and Altered it to capture my ip from my local machine..
IPAddress ipAddress = Dns.Resolve(Dns.GetHostName()).AddressList[0];
IPEndPoint ipLocalEndPoint = new IPEndPoint(ipAddress, 11000);
//IPEndPoint localpt = new IPEndPoint(ipLocalEndPoint);
UdpClient udpServer = new UdpClient(ipLocalEndPoint);
udpServer.Client.SetSocketOption(
SocketOptionLevel.Socket, SocketOptionName.ReuseAddress, true);
udpServer.Connect(ipLocalEndPoint);
UdpClient udpServer2 = new UdpClient();
udpServer2.Client.SetSocketOption(
SocketOptionLevel.Socket, SocketOptionName.ReuseAddress, true);
udpServer2.Client.Bind(ipLocalEndPoint); // <<---------- Exception here
this will produce the exception on the Bind () method.. sorry.

My advice: don't pass the port number into the UdpClient constructor. From the documentation, (somewhat sparse, I know...) it looks like if you do, the UdpClient will try to bind to that port (which, as sysrqb mentioned, is not allowed). (If you don't, I believe the UdpClient will listen on a random port for any replies. You could also pick a port you know to be unused.)
When you call Connect() you need to pass in the port number the server is listening on.

bind the two programs,ie, the sender and receiver to the same port on the localhost.dats the simple answer.

Related

UDP Listener using sockets generating type error

Im new to Sockets and C# in general and am having a difficult time implementing a simple upd listener function. I've spent alot of time searching the web tying unsuccessfully to intergate any of the numerious examples online. So any suggestions, links, examples would be greatly appreciated!
At this point, I have a third party application broadcasting over port 6600 a general UPD message containing information about the location of the application server (ServerName, IP Address, etc.). I'd like to design my listener client application to capture the UPD broadcast and generate a collection of the available servers which can be used to future processing.
The problem I'm having is that when I attempt to create the listener using listener.Listen(0) if fails and generates a general type error. If I attempt to us the UdpClient class my application hangs and never returns any data. The Code for both examples is listed below:
namespace UDPListener
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
Socket listener = new Socket(AddressFamily.InterNetwork, SocketType.Dgram, ProtocolType.Udp);
listener.Bind(new IPEndPoint(IPAddress.Any, 6600));
listener.Listen(6);
Socket socket = listener.Accept();
Stream netStream = new NetworkStream(socket);
StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(netStream);
string result = reader.ReadToEnd();
Console.WriteLine(result);
socket.Close();
listener.Close();
}
}
}
And the UdpClient:
private void IdentifyServer()
{
//Creates a UdpClient for reading incoming data.
UdpClient receivingUdpClient = new UdpClient(6600);
//Creates an IPEndPoint to record the IP Address and port number of the sender.
// The IPEndPoint will allow you to read datagrams sent from any source.
IPEndPoint RemoteIpEndPoint = new IPEndPoint(IPAddress.Any, 0);
try
{
// Blocks until a message returns on this socket from a remote host.
Byte[] receiveBytes = receivingUdpClient.Receive(ref RemoteIpEndPoint);
string returnData = Encoding.ASCII.GetString(receiveBytes);
Output.Text = ("This is the message you received " +
returnData.ToString());
Output.Text = ("This message was sent from " +
RemoteIpEndPoint.Address.ToString() +
" on their port number " +
RemoteIpEndPoint.Port.ToString());
}
catch (Exception e)
{
MessageBox.Show(e.ToString());
}
dtb was absolutely write! After much research and some help from a friend I realized that what I was actually looking for was a solution for Multicasting. I'll include the links below.
#dtb, thanks for helping point me in the right direction!
http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/1705/IP-Multicasting-in-C
http://codeidol.com/csharp/csharp-network/IP-Multicasting/Csharp-IP-Multicast-Support/

UDP Multicast between two sockets in the same process

I'm writting some tests for classes that handles UDP multicast communication.
I designed the tests to use the loopback interface (127.0.0.1) for the tests because I don't want the them to interfer with other programs/devices on the network.
In my "unit test" I have a tested socket that joins a given multicast group and binds to 127.0.0.1 and a sender
socket that also joined the same multicast group and binds to 127.0.0.1, both of course in the same process.
To be sure that the message is sent I have another test program (so another process) that also joins the multicast group and outputs everything that is sent to it.
The problem is that my tested socket never receive what the sender sent BUT the test program (so another process) receives it.
Are there some limitation with the combination multiple sockets/multicast/localhost?
New information:
My mistake was to consider that UDP on localhost might be reliable. The below test program shows that the first UDP packet is never received (at least on my computer) by my listening socket (but the other process still receives it).
In my unit tests I am sending one packet and expects specific answers: I cannot afford sending the message two times and receiving the answer only once.
It seems to work reliably if I wait for the first receive timeout to occur before sending the first packet.
Does anyone have an idea why the first UDP packet never arrives?
Here's the code I used in my trials:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Net;
using System.Net.Sockets;
using System.Threading;
using NUnit.Framework;
namespace MulticastTest
{
[TestFixture]
public class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
new Program().Run();
Console.WriteLine("Press any key to exit...");
Console.ReadKey();
}
[Test]
public void Run()
{
_waitFirstReadTiemout = new AutoResetEvent(false);
IPAddress lMulticastAddress = new IPAddress(0xFAFFFFEF);
IPEndPoint lRemoteEndPoint = new IPEndPoint(lMulticastAddress, 1900);
// Create sender socket
Socket lSendSocket = new Socket(AddressFamily.InterNetwork,
SocketType.Dgram,
ProtocolType.Udp);
// Allow to share the port 1900 with other applications
lSendSocket.SetSocketOption(SocketOptionLevel.Socket,
SocketOptionName.ReuseAddress,
true);
// Set TTL for multicast packets: socket needs to be bounded to do this
lSendSocket.SetSocketOption(SocketOptionLevel.IP,
SocketOptionName.MulticastTimeToLive,
2);
// Bind the socket to the local end point: this MUST be done before joining the multicast group
lSendSocket.Bind(new IPEndPoint(IPAddress.Loopback, 55236));
// Join the multicast group
lSendSocket.SetSocketOption(SocketOptionLevel.IP,
SocketOptionName.MulticastLoopback,
true);
lSendSocket.SetSocketOption(SocketOptionLevel.IP,
SocketOptionName.AddMembership,
new MulticastOption(lMulticastAddress));
// Create receiver and start its thread
Thread lReceiveThread = new Thread(ReceiveThread);
lReceiveThread.Start();
int i = 0;
while (!fStop)
{
if (i == 0)
_waitFirstReadTiemout.WaitOne(10000);
byte[] lToSend = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(DateTime.Now.ToString("yyyyMMdd HHmmss"));
lSendSocket.SendTo(lToSend, lRemoteEndPoint);
Console.WriteLine("Sent #" + (i + 1) + ": " + DateTime.Now.ToString("yyyyMMdd HHmmss"));
Thread.Sleep(1000);
try
{
if (Console.KeyAvailable || i >= 10)
fStop = true;
}
catch (InvalidOperationException)
{
fStop = i >= 10;
}
finally
{
++i;
}
}
}
private AutoResetEvent _waitFirstReadTiemout;
private bool fStop;
private void ReceiveThread()
{
Socket lSocket = new Socket(AddressFamily.InterNetwork,
SocketType.Dgram,
ProtocolType.Udp);
// Allow to share the port 1900 with other applications
lSocket.SetSocketOption(SocketOptionLevel.Socket,
SocketOptionName.ReuseAddress,
true);
// TTL not required here: we will only LISTEN on the multicast socket
// Bind the socket to the local end point: this MUST be done before joining the multicast group
lSocket.Bind(new IPEndPoint(IPAddress.Loopback, 1900));
// Join the multicast group
// If the local IP is a loopback one, enable multicast loopback
lSocket.SetSocketOption(SocketOptionLevel.IP,
SocketOptionName.MulticastLoopback,
true);
lSocket.SetSocketOption(SocketOptionLevel.IP,
SocketOptionName.AddMembership,
new MulticastOption(
new IPAddress(0xFAFFFFEF)));
lSocket.ReceiveTimeout = 1000;
byte[] lBuffer = new byte[65000];
int i = 0;
while (!fStop)
{
try
{
int lReceived = lSocket.Receive(lBuffer);
++i;
Console.WriteLine("Received #" + i + ": " + Encoding.ASCII.GetString(lBuffer, 0, lReceived));
}
catch (SocketException se)
{
_waitFirstReadTiemout.Set();
Console.WriteLine(se.ToString());
}
}
}
}
}
This most likely is a race between your sending and receiving threads - you send the first packet before the receiver joins the group. This explains why it works with a timeout.
You may need to enable loopback mode on the socket.

tcp/ip client server not working over internet

I'm going to setup a small client/server server in TCP/IP mode, I use VS2010,C# to develop my apps, I've googled a lot and could find some source codes, but none of them work in internet, I can get some answers in my own local system, i.e. I run my server, then listen for my own localhost (127.0.0.1) then send some data (for example using telnet), it works fine but when I do the same over internet I get nothing! I want to use port 80, as I want to send/receive http data, I have tested several source codes, here is the last code I have used (and it works on localhost with telnet)
//server code:
form_load()
IPAddress localAddress = IPAddress.Parse("127.0.0.1");
Socket listenSocket = new Socket(AddressFamily.InterNetwork, SocketType.Stream, ProtocolType.Tcp);
IPEndPoint ipEndpoint = new IPEndPoint(localAddress, 80);
// Bind the socket to the end point
listenSocket.Bind(ipEndpoint);
// Start listening, only allow 1 connection to queue at the same time
listenSocket.Listen(1);
listenSocket.BeginAccept(new AsyncCallback(ReceiveCallback), listenSocket);
Console.WriteLine("Server is waiting on socket {0}", listenSocket.LocalEndPoint);
// Start being important while the world rotates
while (true)
{
Console.WriteLine("Busy Waiting....");
Thread.Sleep(2000);
}
public static void ReceiveCallback(IAsyncResult AsyncCall)
{
System.Text.ASCIIEncoding encoding = new System.Text.ASCIIEncoding();
Byte[] message = encoding.GetBytes("I am a little busy, come back later!");
Socket listener = (Socket)AsyncCall.AsyncState;
Socket client = listener.EndAccept(AsyncCall);
Console.WriteLine("Received Connection from {0}", client.RemoteEndPoint);
client.Send(message);
Console.WriteLine("Ending the connection");
client.Close();
listener.BeginAccept(new AsyncCallback(ReceiveCallback), listener);
}
send data (client), of course I haven't used this code, is it right?
public static string SendData()
{
TcpClient client = new TcpClient();
client.Connect(IP, 80);
StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(client.GetStream());
StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(client.GetStream());
//if statement evalutes to see if the user has selected to update the server
//" " = update server
//"" = do not update the server
//if (updateData.Equals(""))
//{
// space = "";
//}
//else if (!updateData.Equals(""))
//{
// space = " ";
//}
//Refrences stream writer, username variable passed in from GUI
//space variable provides update function: "" = dont update. " " = update database.
sw.WriteLine("h");
sw.Flush();
//data send back from the server assigned to string variable
//string recieved = sr.ReadLine();
return "";
}
I'm going to have the server code in my Server (winserver 2008R2) but currently test it in normal PCs, what am I doing wrong? I want to send some http packet from a random system (with a random IP) to my server (which I know its IP), what should I do? is it possible with tcp/ip or I should do something else?
is it related to static IP? should I certainly have static IP? my web server has a static IP but my clients do not, is it a problem?
I think I have some problem in defining ports and IPs, how should I set them? my server has a specific IP, but I don't know IP of my clients, would you please explain it to me step by step?
thanks
The two most common problems in this scenario:
Ensure your server's router is using port forwarding to forward HTTP requests from the router to the server.
Ensure you are connecting to the server's public IP address, not its local network address.

TcpConnection capable of handling concurrent requests. Client-Server

I'm trying to build a simple Client-Server Application with the following codes:
//SERVER
IPAddress ipAd = IPAddress.Parse("192.163.10.101");
TcpListener myList = new TcpListener(ipAd, 8001);
myList.Start();
Console.WriteLine("The server is running at port 8001...");
Console.WriteLine("The local End point is :" + myList.LocalEndpoint);
Console.WriteLine("Waiting for a connection.....");
Socket s = myList.AcceptSocket();
Console.WriteLine("Connection accepted from " + s.RemoteEndPoint);
//CLIENT
TcpClient tcpclnt = new TcpClient();
Console.WriteLine("Connecting.....");
tcpclnt.Connect("192.163.10.101",8001);
Console.WriteLine("Connected");
this actually does what I need wherein the client can connect to the server. However, when I try to run multiple instances of the client to connect with the server, the server only accepts the first client to connect. Meaning there's like a one-to-one connection wherein only one client can connect with the client. However, what I need is to give the server the ability to accept connections from more than one client.
If anyone can point me a possible solution to this, I'll really be appreciative! Thanks!
You need to call AcceptSocket again to accept another socket.
A typical design would be to have to call BeginAcceptSocket and in the callback call EndAcceptSocket, dispatch the client processing to its own thread (or a worker thread using async methods) and then call BeginAcceptSocket again.
This fragment is untested but should be more or less right/ get you thinking in the right direction.
class Server
{
public Server()
{
TcpListener listener = null;
// init the listener
listener.BeginAcceptSocket((ar) => AcceptLoop(ar, listener),null);
}
public void HandleClientSocketRead(IAsyncResult ar, byte[] recvBuffer, Socket clientSocket)
{
int recvd = clientSocket.EndReceive(ar);
//do something with the data
clientSocket.BeginReceive(recvBuffer, 0, 1024, SocketFlags.None, (ar2) => HandleClientSocketRead(ar2, recvBuffer, clientSocket), null);
}
public void AcceptLoop(IAsyncResult ar, TcpListener listener)
{
Socket clientSocket = listener.EndAcceptSocket(ar); // note that this can throw
byte[] recvBuffer = new byte[1024];
clientSocket.BeginReceive(recvBuffer, 0, 1024, SocketFlags.None, (ar2) => HandleClientSocketRead(ar2, recvBuffer, clientSocket), null);
listener.BeginAcceptSocket((ar) => AcceptLoop(ar, listener), null);
}
}
If you are looking to write a server, a good design is to have a [server].exe and a [client].exe. The [server].exe, will of course accept and process all incoming connections, maintain the client sockets, and perform whatever actions you need. Below is a very basic example on writing a server to accept multiple client sockets, and store them in a List object. This, however, is not multithreaded so the code, does block.
[server].exe
//-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
// <copyright file="Program.cs" company="DCOM Productions">
// Copyright (c) DCOM Productions. All rights reserved.
// </copyright>
//-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
namespace MultiSocketServerExample {
using System;
using System.Net.Sockets;
using System.Net;
using System.Collections.Generic;
class Program {
static List<Socket> m_ConnectedClients = new List<Socket>();
static void Main(string[] args) {
Socket host = new Socket(AddressFamily.InterNetwork, SocketType.Stream, ProtocolType.Tcp);
host.Bind(new IPEndPoint(IPAddress.Any, 9999));
host.Listen(1);
while (true) {
m_ConnectedClients.Add(host.Accept());
Console.WriteLine("A client connected.");
}
}
}
}
Then to work with your clients: (Again, very basic example)
m_ConnectedClients[0].Send(Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes("hello!");
Network programming with the Socket class is a lot easier in my opinion then using TcpListener and TcpClient. The reason I say this is that it is already a really good and easy to use implementation, and by using TcpListener and TcpClient where they create further abstraction, lessenes your ability to understand what is going on (in my opinion).

In C#, how to check if a TCP port is available?

In C# to use a TcpClient or generally to connect to a socket how can I first check if a certain port is free on my machine?
more info:
This is the code I use:
TcpClient c;
//I want to check here if port is free.
c = new TcpClient(ip, port);
Since you're using a TcpClient, that means you're checking open TCP ports. There are lots of good objects available in the System.Net.NetworkInformation namespace.
Use the IPGlobalProperties object to get to an array of TcpConnectionInformation objects, which you can then interrogate about endpoint IP and port.
int port = 456; //<--- This is your value
bool isAvailable = true;
// Evaluate current system tcp connections. This is the same information provided
// by the netstat command line application, just in .Net strongly-typed object
// form. We will look through the list, and if our port we would like to use
// in our TcpClient is occupied, we will set isAvailable to false.
IPGlobalProperties ipGlobalProperties = IPGlobalProperties.GetIPGlobalProperties();
TcpConnectionInformation[] tcpConnInfoArray = ipGlobalProperties.GetActiveTcpConnections();
foreach (TcpConnectionInformation tcpi in tcpConnInfoArray)
{
if (tcpi.LocalEndPoint.Port==port)
{
isAvailable = false;
break;
}
}
// At this point, if isAvailable is true, we can proceed accordingly.
You're on the wrong end of the Intertube. It is the server that can have only one particular port open. Some code:
IPAddress ipAddress = Dns.GetHostEntry("localhost").AddressList[0];
try {
TcpListener tcpListener = new TcpListener(ipAddress, 666);
tcpListener.Start();
}
catch (SocketException ex) {
MessageBox.Show(ex.Message, "kaboom");
}
Fails with:
Only one usage of each socket address (protocol/network address/port) is normally permitted.
When you set up a TCP connection, the 4-tuple (source-ip, source-port, dest-ip, dest-port) has to be unique - this is to ensure packets are delivered to the right place.
There is a further restriction on the server side that only one server program can bind to an incoming port number (assuming one IP address; multi-NIC servers have other powers but we don't need to discuss them here).
So, at the server end, you:
create a socket.
bind that socket to a port.
listen on that port.
accept connections on that port.
and there can be multiple connections coming in (one per client).
On the client end, it's usually a little simpler:
create a socket.
open the connection.
When a client opens the connection, it specifies the ip address and port of the server. It can specify its source port but usually uses zero which results in the system assigning it a free port automatically.
There is no requirement that the destination IP/port be unique since that would result in only one person at a time being able to use Google, and that would pretty well destroy their business model.
This means you can even do such wondrous things as multi-session FTP since you set up multiple sessions where the only difference is your source port, allowing you to download chunks in parallel. Torrents are a little different in that the destination of each session is usually different.
And, after all that waffling (sorry), the answer to your specific question is that you don't need to specify a free port. If you're connecting to a server with a call that doesn't specify your source port, it'll almost certainly be using zero under the covers and the system will give you an unused one.
Thanks for this tip. I needed the same functionality but on the Server side to check if a Port was in use so I modified it to this code.
private bool CheckAvailableServerPort(int port) {
LOG.InfoFormat("Checking Port {0}", port);
bool isAvailable = true;
// Evaluate current system tcp connections. This is the same information provided
// by the netstat command line application, just in .Net strongly-typed object
// form. We will look through the list, and if our port we would like to use
// in our TcpClient is occupied, we will set isAvailable to false.
IPGlobalProperties ipGlobalProperties = IPGlobalProperties.GetIPGlobalProperties();
IPEndPoint[] tcpConnInfoArray = ipGlobalProperties.GetActiveTcpListeners();
foreach (IPEndPoint endpoint in tcpConnInfoArray) {
if (endpoint.Port == port) {
isAvailable = false;
break;
}
}
LOG.InfoFormat("Port {0} available = {1}", port, isAvailable);
return isAvailable;
}
TcpClient c;
//I want to check here if port is free.
c = new TcpClient(ip, port);
...how can I first check if a certain port is free on my machine?
I mean that it is not in use by any other application.
If an application is using a port others can't use it until it becomes free. – Ali
You have misunderstood what's happening here.
TcpClient(...) parameters are of server ip and server port you wish to connect to.
The TcpClient selects a transient local port from the available pool to communicate to the server. There's no need to check for the availability of the local port as it is automatically handled by the winsock layer.
In case you can't connect to the server using the above code fragment, the problem could be one or more of several. (i.e. server ip and/or port is wrong, remote server not available, etc..)
thanks for the #jro answer. I had to tweak it for my usage. I needed to check if a port was being listened on, and not neccessarily active. For this I replaced
TcpConnectionInformation[] tcpConnInfoArray = ipGlobalProperties.GetActiveTcpConnections();
with
IPEndPoint[] objEndPoints = ipGlobalProperties.GetActiveTcpListeners();.
I iterated the array of endpoints checking that my port value was not found.
To answer the exact question of finding a free port (which is what I needed in my unit tests) in dotnet core 3.1 I came up this
public static int GetAvailablePort(IPAddress ip) {
TcpListener l = new TcpListener(ip, 0);
l.Start();
int port = ((IPEndPoint)l.LocalEndpoint).Port;
l.Stop();
Log.Info($"Available port found: {port}");
return port;
}
note: based the comment by #user207421 about port zero I searched and found this and slightly modified it.
string hostname = "localhost";
int portno = 9081;
IPAddress ipa = (IPAddress) Dns.GetHostAddresses(hostname)[0];
try
{
System.Net.Sockets.Socket sock = new System.Net.Sockets.Socket(System.Net.Sockets.AddressFamily.InterNetwork, System.Net.Sockets.SocketType.Stream, System.Net.Sockets.ProtocolType.Tcp);
sock.Connect(ipa, portno);
if (sock.Connected == true) // Port is in use and connection is successful
MessageBox.Show("Port is Closed");
sock.Close();
}
catch (System.Net.Sockets.SocketException ex)
{
if (ex.ErrorCode == 10061) // Port is unused and could not establish connection
MessageBox.Show("Port is Open!");
else
MessageBox.Show(ex.Message);
}
From the available ports I would exclude:
active TCP connections
active TCP listeners
active UDP listeners
With the following import:
using System.Net.NetworkInformation;
You can use the following function to check if a port is available or not:
private bool isPortAvailable(int myPort)
{
var availablePorts = new List<int>();
var properties = IPGlobalProperties.GetIPGlobalProperties();
// Active connections
var connections = properties.GetActiveTcpConnections();
availablePorts.AddRange(connections);
// Active tcp listners
var endPointsTcp = properties.GetActiveTcpListeners();
availablePorts.AddRange(endPointsTcp);
// Active udp listeners
var endPointsUdp = properties.GetActiveUdpListeners();
availablePorts.AddRange(endPointsUdp);
foreach (int p in availablePorts){
if (p == myPort) return false;
}
return true;
}
I give you a similar function for those who use VB.NET:
Imports System.Net.NetworkInformation
Private Function isPortAvailable(ByVal myPort As Integer) As Boolean
Dim props As IPGlobalProperties = IPGlobalProperties.GetIPGlobalProperties()
' ignore active connections
Dim tcpConnInfoArray() As TcpConnectionInformation = props.GetActiveTcpConnections()
For Each tcpi As Net.NetworkInformation.TcpConnectionInformation In tcpConnInfoArray
If tcpi.LocalEndPoint.Port = myPort Then
Return False
End If
Next tcpi
' ignore active TCP listeners
Dim activeTcpListeners() As Net.IPEndPoint = props.GetActiveTcpListeners
For Each tcpListener As Net.IPEndPoint In activeTcpListeners
If tcpListener.Port = myPort Then
Return False
End If
Next tcpListener
' ignore active UPD listeners
Dim activeUdpListeners() As Net.IPEndPoint = props.GetActiveUdpListeners
For Each udpListener As Net.IPEndPoint In activeUdpListeners
If udpListener.Port = myPort Then
Return False
End If
Next udpListener
Return True
End Function
netstat! That's a network command line utility which ships with windows. It shows all current established connections and all ports currently being listened to. You can use this program to check, but if you want to do this from code look into the System.Net.NetworkInformation namespace? It's a new namespace as of 2.0. There's some goodies there. But eventually if you wanna get the same kind of information that's available through the command netstat you'll need to result to P/Invoke...
Update: System.Net.NetworkInformation
That namespace contains a bunch of classes you can use for figuring out things about the network.
I wasn't able to find that old pice of code but I think you can write something similar yourself. A good start is to check out the IP Helper API. Google MSDN for the GetTcpTable WINAPI function and use P/Invoke to enumerate until you have the information you need.
If I'm not very much mistaken, you can use System.Network.whatever to check.
However, this will always incur a race condition.
The canonical way of checking is try to listen on that port. If you get an error that port wasn't open.
I think this is part of why bind() and listen() are two separate system calls.
ipGlobalProperties.GetActiveTcpConnections() doesn't return connections in Listen State.
Port can be used for listening, but with no one connected to it the method described above will not work.
You say
I mean that it is not in use by any
other application. If an application
is using a port others can't use it
until it becomes free.
But you can always connect to a port while others are using it if something's listening there. Otherwise, http port 80 would be a mess.
If your
c = new TcpClient(ip, port);
fails, then nothing's listening there. Otherwise, it will connect, even if some other machine/application has a socket open to that ip and port.
Be aware the time window between you make check and the moment you try to make connection some process may take the port - classical TOCTOU. Why don't you just try to connect? If it fails then you know the port is not available.
You don't have to know what ports are open on your local machine to connect to some remote TCP service (unless you want to use a specific local port, but usually that is not the case).
Every TCP/IP connection is identified by 4 values: remote IP, remote port number, local IP, local port number, but you only need to know remote IP and remote port number to establish a connection.
When you create tcp connection using
TcpClient c;
c = new TcpClient(remote_ip, remote_port);
Your system will automatically assign one of many free local port numbers to your connection. You don't need to do anything.
You might also want to check if a remote port is open. but there is no better way to do that than just trying to connect to it.
public static bool TestOpenPort(int Port)
{
var tcpListener = default(TcpListener);
try
{
var ipAddress = Dns.GetHostEntry("localhost").AddressList[0];
tcpListener = new TcpListener(ipAddress, Port);
tcpListener.Start();
return true;
}
catch (SocketException)
{
}
finally
{
if (tcpListener != null)
tcpListener.Stop();
}
return false;
}
Check for error code 10048
try
{
TcpListener tcpListener = new TcpListener(ipAddress, portNumber);
tcpListener.Start();
}
catch(SocketException ex)
{
if(ex.ErrorCode == 10048)
{
MessageBox.Show("Port " + portNumber + " is currently in use.");
}
return;
}
I simply needed to verify if a port was available for listening. Condensing #Melloware example above to a one-liner as static method strictly for the purpose of indicating if the port is available works for me (.NET6).
using System.Net.NetworkInformation;
namespace MyNamespace
{
public static class NetworkValidation
{
public static bool IsListeningPortAvailable(int port) =>
!IPGlobalProperties.GetIPGlobalProperties().GetActiveTcpListeners().Any(x => x.Port == port);
}
}
Implementation as simple console app:
using MyNamespace;
int port = 5000;
var available = NetworkValidation.IsListeningPortAvailable(port);
Console.WriteLine($"Port:{port} available == {available}");
test_connection("ip", port);
public void test_connection(String hostname, int portno) {
IPAddress ipa = (IPAddress)Dns.GetHostAddresses(hostname)[0];
try {
System.Net.Sockets.Socket sock = new System.Net.Sockets.Socket(System.Net.Sockets.AddressFamily.InterNetwork, System.Net.Sockets.SocketType.Stream, System.Net.Sockets.ProtocolType.Tcp);
sock.Connect(ipa, portno);
if (sock.Connected == true) {
MessageBox.Show("Port is in use");
}
sock.Close();
}
catch (System.Net.Sockets.SocketException ex) {
if (ex.ErrorCode == 10060) {
MessageBox.Show("No connection.");
}
}
}
try this, in my case the port number for the created object wasn't available so I came up with this
IPEndPoint endPoint;
int port = 1;
while (true)
{
try
{
endPoint = new IPEndPoint(IPAddress.Any, port);
break;
}
catch (SocketException)
{
port++;
}
}

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