Question

I am creating a server (desktop based) which listens on a port 4504 using this bit of code

                IPAddress[] AddressAr = null;
                String ServerHostName = "";

                try
                {
                    ServerHostName = Dns.GetHostName();
                    IPHostEntry ipEntry = Dns.GetHostByName(ServerHostName);
                    AddressAr = ipEntry.AddressList;
                }
                catch (Exception) { }

                if (AddressAr == null || AddressAr.Length < 1)
                {
                    return "Unable to get local address ... Error";
                }

                Listener_Socket = new Socket(AddressFamily.InterNetwork, SocketType.Stream, ProtocolType.Tcp);

                Listener_Socket.Bind(new IPEndPoint(AddressAr[0], Port));
                Listener_Socket.Listen(-1);

                Listener_Socket.BeginAccept(new AsyncCallback(EndAccept), Listener_Socket);

                return ("Listening On " + AddressAr[0].ToString() + ":" + Port + "... OK");

Now the problem is that, I want to run this on my server and the value of AddressAr[0] I want to be is the public IP of my server, but this snippet returns the local lan address of the server.

Like I want AddressAr[0] = “180.123.45.6” something [which is the public IP of my server], but with this snippet I am getting AddressAr[0] = “192.168.2.2”

PS: I am running this server as a desktop app and my trials were in the debugging mode.

I’d appreciate any help.
Thank You.

Answer 1

You need to listen on your local host, which will be your 192.168.2.2 (this is correct) and then forward the external packets/traffic from your public address to your local machine.

If you’re using, for instance, a linksys router, you can go to NAT/QOS and forward any incoming traffic on a specific port, e.g. 4504 to your local machine address 192.168.2.2

Any standard home router will have port forwarding built into the firmware.