making a server listen continually

[fguihen]

i have a client connecting to a server. they exchange mesages fine the first time, but i dont know how to keep the server listening for a client indefinately. anyone give any pointers on this?

[Gill Bates]

The .AcceptSocket method blocks until a connection is created. The method returns a socket. You need to pass this socket off to a different process that fires on its own thread.

private void StartServer()
{
   TcpListener server = new TcpListener(IPAddress.Any, 1234);
   server.Start();

   Socket socket;

   ChatSession chatSession;
   
   while (true)
   {
       // blocks until a connection is established
       socket = server.AcceptSocket();

       // when this fires the socket will be connected and the connection 
       // will actually be setup on a port other than 1234.  this allows
       // us to keep servicing future requests on port 1234.
       
       // for long running processes, the key is to somehow pass the socket 
       // off to another thread.  if you don't do this the server will
       // not be able to establish new connections while the process is still
       // running.

       chatSession = new ChatSession(socket);
       chatSessions.Add(chatSession);
   }
}

The "ChatSession" class would spawn a new thread to handle the communication on the socket, which would allow the while loop to iterate again and wait for a new incoming connection request.

[fguihen]

perfect !!! exactly what i was looking for. couldnt get my head around this bit. thanks ! :)

[nate]

VB Compatable

 

Gill Bates,

I was looking for this same info but for VB. Can you show me how to do this in VB. I too want to serve multiple clients simultaniously. I used to accomplish this with multiple winsock controls in VB6. I haven't done it in .net. Thanks in advance.