Question

I’m trying to send a udp broadcast, and receive an answer in c#. While sending the broadcast works perfectly, i don’t receive any answer in c#. But when i take a look with wireshark, i can see an answer has been sent:

1. Sent from 192.168.0.141 to 192.168.0.255
2. Sent from 192.168.0.105 to 255.255.255.255 (that would be the answer)

Wireshark Log:

1   0.000000    192.168.0.141   192.168.0.255   UDP Source port: 55487  Destination port: 17784
2   0.000851    192.168.0.105   255.255.255.255 UDP Source port: 17784  Destination port: 55487

Thats my c# code:

    private static byte[] SendBuffer = new byte[] { 1, 2, 3 };

    public static void SendAndReceiveBroadcast( byte[] data, IPEndPoint broadcastEndpoint )
    {

        using( Socket broadcastSocket = new Socket( AddressFamily.InterNetwork, SocketType.Dgram, ProtocolType.Udp ) )
        {
            broadcastSocket.SetSocketOption( SocketOptionLevel.Socket, SocketOptionName.Broadcast, 1 );
            broadcastSocket.SendTo( data, broadcastEndpoint );
            receivePort = broadcastSocket.LocalEndPoint.ToString().Split( ':' )[1];
            Console.WriteLine( "Sent {0} from Port {1}", CollectionsHelper.ItemsToString( data, "{0:X2}" ), broadcastSocket.LocalEndPoint.ToString() );
            broadcastSocket.Close();
        }

        using( Socket receiveSocket = new Socket( AddressFamily.InterNetwork, SocketType.Dgram, ProtocolType.Udp ) )
        {
            IPEndPoint broadcastAddress = new IPEndPoint( IPAddress.Any, Convert.ToInt32( receivePort ) );
            UdpClient udpClient = new UdpClient();
            udpClient.Client.SetSocketOption( SocketOptionLevel.Socket, SocketOptionName.ReuseAddress, true );
            udpClient.Client.Bind( broadcastAddress );
            IPEndPoint remoteIP = new IPEndPoint( IPAddress.Any, Convert.ToInt32( receivePort ) );
            byte[] answer = udpClient.Receive( ref remoteIP );
        }
    }

The program stops when calling udpClient.Receive. Can anyone help me plz? 🙂

Answer 1

1. You should use ReceiveFrom. Receive is for TCP.
2. If I’m not mistaken, broadcast messages are not queued. Call BeginReceiveFrom before the broadcast and EndReceiveFrom after.