Question

I have written a windows service in C# .NET. This windows service contains a WCF service. I then use a new ServiceHost in the OnStart of the windows service to listen for messages for the WCF service. And close this ServiceHost in the OnStop.

When the service is running I can call the WCF service just fine. However, I then stop the service but can still call the WCF service. I wasn’t expecting this to happen. What is going on?

OnStart and OnStop code is below

    protected override void OnStart(string[] args)
    {
        if (serviceHost != null)
        {
            serviceHost.Close();
        }

        serviceHost = new ServiceHost(typeof(MyService));

        // Open the ServiceHostBase to create listeners and start 
        // listening for messages.
        serviceHost.Open();
    }

    protected override void OnStop()
    {
        if (serviceHost != null)
        {
            serviceHost.Close();
            serviceHost = null;
        }
    }

Answer 1

I have now solved this and thought I would update with the answer. Although I doubt anyone else would be so stupid 😉

I had added the reference to my client app by right clicking on the project and selecting “Add Reference” rather than “Add Service Reference”. I am still not sure why this allows the service to be called when it is not running but now I have added it as a Service Reference everything works as expected.

Thanks for everyone’s input.