You need to create a server that listens on a port for incoming requests from a TCP client. These client requests can then be processed at the server, and any responses can be sent back to the client.

Use the TcpListener class to create a TCP-based endpoint to listen for requests from TCP based clients. In the snippet code below, RunServer initiates a one-request TCP-based server running on a given IP address and port:

public static void RunServer(string address, int port)
{
    // set up address
    IPAddress addr = IPAddress.Parse(address);
    // set up listener on that address/port
    TcpListener tcpListener = new TcpListener(addr, port);
    if (tcpListener != null)
    {
        // start it up
        tcpListener.Start();
        // wait for a tcp client to connect
        TcpClient tcpClient = tcpListener.AcceptTcpClient();

        byte[] bytes = new byte[1024];
        // get the client stream
        NetworkStream clientStream = tcpClient.GetStream();
        StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(clientStream, Encoding.UTF8);
        try
        {
            string request = reader.ReadToEnd();

            // just send an acknowledgement
            bytes = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes("Thanks for the message!");
            clientStream.Write(bytes, 0, bytes.Length);
        }
        finally
        {
            // close the reader
            reader.Close();
        }

        // stop listening
        tcpListener.Stop();
    }
}

RunServer takes the IP address and port passed in, creates an IPAddress from the string address, and creates a TcpListener on that IPAddress and port. Once created, the TcpListener.Start method is called to start up the server. The blocking AcceptTcpClient method is called to listen for requests from TCP-based clients. Once the client connects, the request data from the client is read and a brief acknowledgment is given, and then the client stream is closed and the TcpListener is stopped using the TcpListener.Stop method.

Popularity: 5% [?]