I've have this code here of a simple Client/Server application. How it works: The client enters "get time", and the server responds with the time.
The problem is that a NullReferenceException is thrown after the client successfully connects to the server. Why does that happen?
Codes:
Client:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Net;
using System.Net.Sockets;
namespace Time_Client
{
class Program
{
private static Socket clientSocket = new Socket(AddressFamily.InterNetwork, SocketType.Stream, ProtocolType.Tcp);
static void Main(string[] args)
{
Console.Title = "Client";
LoopConnect();
SendLoop();
Console.ReadLine();
}
private static void SendLoop()
{
while (true)
{
Console.Write("Enter a request: ");
string req = Console.ReadLine();
byte[] buffer = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(req);
clientSocket.Send(buffer);
byte[] receivedBuf = new byte[1024];
int rec = clientSocket.Receive(receivedBuf);
byte[] data = new byte[rec];
Array.Copy(receivedBuf, data, rec);
Console.WriteLine("Received: " + Encoding.ASCII.GetString(data));
}
}
private static void LoopConnect()
{
int attempts = 0;
while (!clientSocket.Connected)
{
try
{
attempts++;
clientSocket.Connect(IPAddress.Loopback, 100);
}
catch (SocketException)
{
Console.WriteLine("Connection attempts: " + attempts);
}
}
Console.Clear();
Console.WriteLine("Connected");
}
}
}
Server:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using System.Net;
using System.Net.Sockets;
namespace Time_Server
{
class Program
{
private static byte[] buffer = new byte[1024];
private static List<Socket> clientSockets = new List<Socket>();
private static Socket serverSocket = new Socket(AddressFamily.InterNetwork, SocketType.Stream, ProtocolType.Tcp);
static void Main(string[] args)
{
Console.Title = "Server";
SetupServer();
Console.ReadLine();
}
private static void SetupServer()
{
Console.WriteLine("Setting up server...");
serverSocket.Bind(new IPEndPoint(IPAddress.Any, 100));
serverSocket.Listen(5);
serverSocket.BeginAccept(new AsyncCallback(RecieveCallback), null);
}
private static void AcceptCallback(IAsyncResult AR)
{
Socket socket = serverSocket.EndAccept(AR);
clientSockets.Add(socket);
Console.WriteLine("Client Connected");
socket.BeginReceive(buffer, 0, buffer.Length, SocketFlags.None, new AsyncCallback(RecieveCallback), socket);
serverSocket.BeginAccept(new AsyncCallback(AcceptCallback), null);
}
private static void RecieveCallback(IAsyncResult AR)
{
Socket socket = (Socket)AR.AsyncState;
int received = socket.EndReceive(AR); // the exception is thrown here
byte[] dataBuf = new byte[received];
Array.Copy(buffer, dataBuf, received);
string text = Encoding.ASCII.GetString(dataBuf);
Console.WriteLine("Text received: " + text);
string response = "";
if (text.ToLower() != "get time")
{
response = "Invalid Request";
}
else
{
response = DateTime.Now.ToLongTimeString();
}
byte[] data = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(response);
socket.BeginSend(data, 0, data.Length, SocketFlags.None, new AsyncCallback(RecieveCallback), socket);
socket.BeginReceive(buffer, 0, buffer.Length, SocketFlags.None, new AsyncCallback(RecieveCallback), socket);
}
private static void SendCallback(IAsyncResult AR)
{
Socket socket = (Socket)AR.AsyncState;
socket.EndSend(AR);
}
}
}
How can I solve this?
EDIT: Ah, I was mistaken in what was wrong. This is the problem.
serverSocket.BeginAccept(new AsyncCallback(RecieveCallback), null);
Note that you're using RecieveCallback
instead of AcceptCallback
. So you end up in RecieveCallback
(which should be ReceiveCallback
, by the way) at which point you find the async state - which is null - and call EndReceive
... but this isn't the callback for Receive
operation, it's a callback for an Accept
operation.
The line above should be:
serverSocket.BeginAccept(new AsyncCallback(AcceptCallback), null);
However, if you're trying to write a simple client/server program, I would avoid using async IO at all, and just go for synchronous operations, to start with. When you do want to use asynchronous operations, use async
/ await
from C# 5 - it'll make your life a lot easier.
I'd also recommend using the TcpClient
and TcpListener
classes to make things simpler. They're wrappers around the sockets.
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