C# Network programming

[Guest]

I'm trying to work with TCP & I'm going quite mad.

Does anyone have an quality guides that explain step by step what goes on in C# sockets?

Does anyone suggest any alternatives?

I am writing a networked game (I won't use Unity's services. They don't provide the control I need.) & need to program network stuff like last week.

 

I've been trying to understand through this guide:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyuUtAqWVPU

(Part 22.2 & 22.1 as well) but I'm unsure of what to do.

I followed some other guide I found elsewhere but don't understand the code I wrote anymore. It has a ton of abstractions & weird stuff going on.

I'm sure I'm exhausted & mentally drained which isn't helping.

 

I'm writing a server & client (Right now I am perfectly okay with JUST using localhost with 1 server & 1 client.)

 

What I'm trying to do:

Spoiler

Setup:
Server-Has maps stored as .txt files. Has misc data as a class (enumerations in class)

Client-Has player character & can generate the maps based off the .txt data.

 

Step 1:
Server starts up

Step 2:
Client connects to server

Step 3:
Client tells server what map it wants

Step 4:

Server gives map to client

Step 5:
Client loads map

Step 6:

Client plays on map

Step 7:
Client decides to stop playing. Closes game

Step 8:

Map file is sent back to server

 

I would like to have all connected clients remembered whilst the server is running. I would appreciate the server knowing when clients disconnect & closing the connection when that occurs but one step at a time. (Perhaps ping the client every now & then to say "Are you still there?")

 

EDIT:
I'm not asking for the code to be written for me. I am asking for a guide that explains what's needed for TCP protocol, & what steps should be taken & why. If there's a guide that exists for beginning network programmers that know C#.

[BobVonBob]

TCP sockets are, as a general rule, closed after every request. That's wrong. They will generally be closed when no subsequent data is required for some length of time. You don't want to make a new connection for every image on a webpage for instance. Your best bet to check what clients are connected would probably be a unique identifier sent in regular pings from the client, with a timeout so that if a client disconnects unexpectedly the server doesn't still think they are connected. This also allows for the client to change IP addresses without disconnecting, say they switch Wifi networks or use a mobile data connection.

 

Microsoft's help pages are actually very good with regards to network programming using .NET.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/framework/network-programming/

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, BobVonBob said:

TCP sockets are, as a general rule, closed after every request.

Is this just how the TCP standard is setup?
Or is this how all network protocol are setup?

2 minutes ago, BobVonBob said:

Your best bet to check what clients are connected would probably be a unique identifier sent in regular pings from the client, with a timeout so that if a client disconnects unexpectedly the server doesn't still think they are connected. This also allows for the client to change IP addresses without disconnecting, say they switch Wifi networks or use a mobile data connection.

How would I store the client & know who the client is if he changes IP addresses?

 

As far as I know, the IP address is the only thing saying who you are/how to find you on the internet.

[BobVonBob]

4 minutes ago, fpo said:

Is this just how the TCP standard is setup?
Or is this how all network protocol are setup?

How would I store the client & know who the client is if he changes IP addresses?

 

As far as I know, the IP address is the only thing saying who you are/how to find you on the internet.

I messed up the first bit, or at least didn't word it right.

 

As for the second bit, use a unique identifier. A-la a Steam ID or Username. Although you'll need to perform more validation than that if you don't want people to be able to fake being a different person. Probably a pseudo-randomly generated token sent to the client and saved there. Session cookies but for an application.

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, BobVonBob said:

I messed up the first bit, or at least didn't word it right.

How would you re-phrase it?

6 minutes ago, BobVonBob said:

As for the second bit, use a unique identifier. A-la a Steam ID or Username. Although you'll need to perform more validation than that if you don't want people to be able to fake being a different person. Probably a pseudo-randomly generated token sent to the client and saved there. Session cookies but for an application.

Ahh. That would be a good idea.
I don't know how advanced that'd be. As of right now, I don't understand why or how any network code is used. I'm reading through that guide you posted earlier however.

[BobVonBob]

2 minutes ago, fpo said:

How would you re-phrase it?

I edited the first post I made to make it more clear. You don't close after every request, you usually close after every block of requests.

[BobVonBob]

3 minutes ago, fpo said:

How would you re-phrase it?

Bonus, that other definition might also be wrong depending on your use case, you can use "keep alive" functionality on TCP sockets with Async IO to support many more simultaneous connections than you will ever need.

[Guest]

31 minutes ago, BobVonBob said:

snip

Can you provide an example program with an explanation in what you're doing & why?

[BobVonBob]

48 minutes ago, fpo said:

Can you provide an example program with an explanation in what you're doing & why?

Probably not, I don't know too much about networking in C# in particular, but I've done network stuff in other languages before.

 

Here's Microsoft's examples, you'll probably be best served with the asynchronous client and server.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/framework/network-programming/socket-code-examples

[Guest]

17 minutes ago, BobVonBob said:

snip

I think I'm getting it a lot better now.

I re-watched the videos in my OP with your input & reading through some of the information & I'm getting a more firm understanding.

Thanks!

[Rechdan]

Hello friend!

 

Almost a year ago, I started a Open Source project about a gameserver, here is the Git repo: https://github.com/Rechdan/Open-WYD-Server

 

You can find the Socket from the server at Channel.cs and from the client at Client.cs

 

Hope thats useful for you and good luck!