Develop Reference

serverSocket.accept() slow or non-responding

We created a server client relation between java (eclipse on windows/server) and android app (android studio/client). The communication seems fine, but sometimes the connecting is horrably slow, up to the point where the app and and server don't respond anymore. Yet, no real error is given and there is no pattern to when the connection goes well or when it is slow.
We looked for answers here at stack, but we could only find answers regarding the output and input streams. However, once the connection (serverSocket.accept()) is made, the program runs fine and the streams are created super fast. Thus we think the problem lies with the server side creation of sockets. The program only has to handle a maximum of 30 clients, and the only communication exists of strings (so no enormous data transfers).
Note: when one connection acceptation is slow, the next upcomming requests from clients have to wait. When it's their turn they are again randomely fast or slowly accepted by the server. All connections are made on port 8080.
The code of our server and client are given below, does anybody know why the connection is (at some random times) so slow?
SERVER:
public void run() {
keepGoing = true;
try {
serverSocket = new ServerSocket(port);
while (keepGoing) {
display("Server waiting for Clients on port " + port + ".");
Socket socket = serverSocket.accept(); //<---our problem
if (!keepGoing) break;
ClientThread t = new ClientThread(socket, this); //<---program doesnt reach this code when it is slow. One client thread exists for each connection.
}catch (IOException e) {
String msg = sdf.format(new Date())
+ " Exception on new ServerSocket: " + e + "\n";
display(msg);
}
}
CLIENT THREAD CODE: (not reached if slow)
public ClientThread(Socket socket, Server s) {
this.server = s;
this.socket = socket;
System.out.println("Thread trying to create Object Input/Output Streams");
try {
// make streams
sOutput = new ObjectOutputStream(socket.getOutputStream());
sInput = new ObjectInputStream(socket.getInputStream());
// read user account info
String input = (String) sInput.readObject();
String[] accountInfo = input.split(";");
username = accountInfo[0];
password = accountInfo[1];
} "catch all problems"
}
CLIENT (android)
Thread connect = new Thread(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run()
{
try
{
socket = new Socket(ip.getText().toString(), portNr);
sOutput = new ObjectOutputStream(socket.getOutputStream());
sInput = new ObjectInputStream(socket.getInputStream());
}
catch (UnknownHostException e ){
e.printStackTrace();
} catch(IOException e ){
e.printStackTrace();
}
"sending account information"
}
});
connect.start();
try {
connect.join();
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
Thanks so much!

You should make the streams in the ClientThread in the run() method, before you start looping. Not in the constructor. Otherwise you are doing I/O in the accept thread, which slows it down.
I have no idea why you're creating a thread in the client only to join it immediately.

You should extract your main server loop (while(keepGoing)...) into a run method and make the server implement the Runnabel interface. Then create a new Thread and start it.
Example:
public class Server implements Runnable{
private Thread thread;
public Server(){
thread = new Thread(this);
thread.start(); //I would create start() and stop() methods but for simplicity I just use thread.start()
}
#Override
public void run(){
//while....
}
}
I hope you get what I want to say, otherwise just comment and I will upgrade my example ;)

Turns out we had a router issue. When connecting all tablets and computer to a local hotspot it ran super smooth! Tanks everyone for the help :D

EDIT: Try a BufferedStreamReader mentioned here: Java socket performance bottleneck: where?
Instead of:
sOutput = new ObjectOutputStream(socket.getOutputStream());
Use:
sOutput = new ObjectOutputStream(new BufferedOutputStream(socket.getOutputStream()));
and flush it with:
sOutput.flush();
Same goes for the InputStream, use BufferedInputStream.

Not getting desired output in Creating a Multiclient Chat Server?

I am trying to create a multiclient chat sort of server in which we have multiple clients connecting to server and whatever message a client enters, it gets displayed to all the clients(including the client who sent the message). I am not getting this output, instead the message just echoes only on the sender client and no other client. Code is quite long, hence i am displaying snippets of whichever code i think will help you understand error. In case, it is not enough, just comment which part you require. Thanks in advance. I am stuck on this since about hour and half, so i appreciate whatever help i would get.
The Server Class
public class Multiserver {
ServerSocket serversocket;
Socket socket;
ArrayList<Socket> al = new ArrayList<Socket>();
DataInputStream dis;
DataOutputStream dos;
Multiserver() throws IOException
{
serversocket = new ServerSocket(1036);
System.out.println("Server started on port 1036");
while(true)
{
socket = serversocket.accept();
System.out.println(socket);
al.add(socket);
Mythread thread = new Mythread(socket, al);
thread.start();
}
}
Thread used in server class
public class Mythread extends Thread{
Socket socket;
ArrayList al;
DataInputStream dis;
DataOutputStream dos;
Mythread(Socket socket, ArrayList al)
{
this.socket = socket;
this.al = al;}
public void run()
{
try{
String data ="";
dis = new DataInputStream(socket.getInputStream());
data = dis.readUTF();
if(!data.equals("stop"))
{
broadcast(data);
}
else
{
dos = new DataOutputStream(socket.getOutputStream());
// data = dos.readUTF();
dos.writeUTF(data);
dos.flush();
//dos.close();
}
}
catch(Exception e){
System.out.println("Run "+e);
}
}
public void broadcast(String data)
{
try{
Iterator it = al.iterator();
while(it.hasNext())
{
Socket socket1 = (Socket)it.next();
dos = new DataOutputStream(socket1.getOutputStream());
dos.writeUTF(data);
dos.flush();
}
}
catch(Exception e){
System.out.println("Broadcast running "+ e);
}
}
}
The client class
public class Multiclient {
Socket socket;
DataInputStream dis;
DataOutputStream dos;
Multiclient() throws IOException
{
socket = new Socket("127.0.0.1", 1036);
System.out.println(socket);
Mythreadc my = new Mythreadc(socket);
my.start();
}
Thread used in client class
public class Mythreadc extends Thread{
DataInputStream dis;
DataOutputStream dos;
Socket socket;
Mythreadc(Socket socket)throws IOException
{
this.socket = socket;}
public void run()
{
BufferedReader br = null;
try{
br = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader (System.in));
dos = new DataOutputStream(socket.getOutputStream());
String data = "";
do{
data = br.readLine();
dos.writeUTF(data);
System.out.println(data);
dos.flush();
}
while(!data.equals("stop"));
}
catch(Exception e)
{
System.out.println("Client input "+e);
}
finally{
try{
br.close();
dis.close();
dos.close();
}
catch(Exception e)
{
System.out.println("Closing "+e);
}
}
}
}
I am sorry i have put on such a long code, almost all the program. But i feel it is necessary to understand where the problem lies.I have tried and i think it lies in the part where we display data written in the client's socket in the client thread class but i don't know what it is ???
#EDIT: Forgot to mention. The client stops when he sends the message "Stop"!

There are two problems with your code that are preventing the clients from displaying more than one message.
Problem one: Your client code never actually displays or prints out the messages it receives from the server. The line
dos = new DataOutputStream(socket.getOutputStream());
creates an OutputStream you can use to write data to the socket, i.e. send messages to the server. But you never use the socket's InputStream, which is what you need to do to read data from the socket, i.e. receive messages from the server. When you see a message printed out on the client, you're actually just seeing the result of
System.out.println(data);
which has your client print the message it just sent.
In order for the client to accept input from the user and read messages from the server at the same time, you should probably use two threads on the client. One thread can just be the client thread you already wrote, since it takes care of accepting input from the user. The other thread should look something like this:
public class ClientReaderThread extends Thread {
Socket socket;
ClientReaderThread(Socket socket) {
this.socket = socket;
}
public void run() {
try (BufferedReader serverReader = new BufferedReader(
new InputStreamReader(socket.getInputStream()))){
String fromServer = serverReader.readLine();;
while(fromServer != null) {
if (fromServer.equals("stop"))
break;
System.out.println(fromServer);
fromServer = serverReader.readLine();
}
} catch (IOException e) {
System.out.println("Client error! Got exception: " + e);
}
}
}
(Note that I use the try-with-resources statement to construct the reader, which takes care of closing it when the client stops).
Then in your main client class, start both threads with the same socket:
Multiclient() throws IOException
{
socket = new Socket("127.0.0.1", 1036);
System.out.println(socket);
Mythreadc my = new Mythreadc(socket);
ClientReaderThread reader = new ClientReaderThread(socket);
my.start();
reader.start();
}
Problem two: Your server only reads and echoes a single line from each client, because the socket thread that handles each client (Mythread) doesn't contain a loop. With your setup of creating a single thread per client, run() only gets called once per client, so that run() method needs to handle every message that client sends.
Here's how the run() method in the server's thread should look:
public void run() {
try (BufferedReader inStream = new BufferedReader(
new InputStreamReader(socket.getInputStream()))){
String data = inStream.readLine();
while(data != null) {
if(data.equals("stop"))
break;
broadcast(data);
data = inStream.readLine();
}
}
catch(Exception e){
System.out.println("Run exception "+e);
} finally {
al.remove(socket); //This is important to do
}
}
I made an additional important change here: at the end of the run() method, when either the client disconnected or an exception happened, the thread removes its socket from the ArrayList. This ensures that other server threads, which all reference the same ArrayList, don't try to broadcast to the socket of a client that has disconnected. If you neglect to do this, you'll get an exception when a client sends a message to the server after another client has disconnected.
Miscellaneous notes
As I mentioned in my comment, you should give al a type of ArrayList<Socket> inside the thread class, and use a for-each loop instead of an Iterator to iterate over it in broadcast().
I'm using BufferedReader instead of DataInputStream to read from the socket. That's because DataInputStream.readUTF() and writeUTF() are deprecated, and have been replaced with BufferedReader.readLine() and PrintWriter.println().
The streams like dis and dos don't need to be instance variables in your thread classes, since they are only ever used inside the run() method. They can be local variables inside run(), like I did with inStream in my new run() method.

I think you just missed passing the ArrayList of Sockets Users Currently Connected to The Server to the thread
and Instead of Posting your Server Class You have just posted Client Program 2 times anyway ,
Your ServerClass should be build in this way : -
As soon as ServerClass recieves the request from any client, Server Class should add the Socket into ArrayList and create New Thread and just pass both to the MyThread Class
Edit :
It seems you haven't written code for Displaying the data you will get from the server .
At Client Side for Sending the Message You can simple write that in Main Thread that is under Your Client Class's Main Mehtod
You actually needed Thread at client side not for sending the message but rather for Listening the Message from the server,
because you never known when anyone can send you the message but you will always know when you want to send message to anybody connected to this chat App
Now coming to the Coding Part :
Client Class
public class Multiclient {
Socket socket;
DataInputStream dis;
DataOutputStream dos;
Multiclient() throws IOException
{
socket = new Socket("127.0.0.1", 1036);
System.out.println(socket);
Mythreadc my = new Mythreadc(socket);
my.start();
/**
* Here write out the code for taking input from Standard Console
*/
BufferedReader br = null;
try{
br = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader (System.in));
dos = new DataOutputStream(socket.getOutputStream());
String data = "";
do{
data = br.readLine();
dos.writeUTF(data);
System.out.println(data);
dos.flush();
}
while(!data.equals("stop"));
}
catch(Exception e)
{
System.out.println("Client input "+e);
}
}
Client Thread
try{
String data ="";
dis = new DataInputStream(socket.getInputStream());
while(data.equalsIgnorCase("stop")){
data = dis.readUTF();
System.out.println("Server Message : "+data);
}
}
catch(Exception e){
System.out.println("Run "+e);
}
Client Thread is not complete but i think this information is sufficient enough .
Hope It help you out , Your problem do remind me of College Days :)

Using the same client socket to send multiple messages to server socket

There's a million examples on using Java sockets out there - and every one is the same!
Every one shows a client socket being created, some text being sent, and the socket closed.
I am writing some test code. I want my client to loop round and send quite a few messages. It seems silly to close the client socket each time and re-create, so I thought I would just create one client socket, loop round and send data on the same socket. The thing is though - my server socket does not print out what it has received until the last message has been sent by the client and the client socket closed.
Server:
Socket sock;
ClientConnection client;
ServerSocket ss = new ServerSocket(portNumber);
ss.setSoTimeout(0); // 0=infinite
while (true) {
sock = ss.accept();
client = new ClientConnection(sock);
new Thread(client).start();
// ClientConnection reads from sock, prints, and closes sock
}
ClientConnection (a separate class on the Server side):
public class ClientConnection implements Runnable
{
private Socket m_socket;
private BufferedReader m_in = null;
public ClientConnection(Socket socket)
{
m_socket = socket;
try {
InputStream inStream = socket.getInputStream();
m_in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(inStream));
}
catch (IOException ioe) {
ioe.printStackTrace();
}
}
public String getMessage()
{
String line = null;
StringBuffer completeMessage = new StringBuffer();
try {
while ((line = m_in.readLine()) != null)
{
completeMessage.append(line);
}
}
catch (IOException ioe) {
ioe.printStackTrace();
return "";
}
return completeMessage.toString();
}
public void run()
{
try {
String message = getMessage();
System.out.println("Received: " +message);
}
finally
{
try {
m_socket.close();
}
catch (IOException ioe) {
ioe.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
}
Client:
socket = new java.net.Socket(m_destination, m_portNumber);
outputStream = socket.getOutputStream();
printStream = new java.io.PrintStream(outputStream);
while (more-stuff-to-send)
{
printStream.print(text);
printStream.print("\n");
printStream.flush();
}
prinStream.close();
socket.close();
ClientConnection is created by the server when I start the client, but it does not print what has been sent until the client is done sending.
I feel like I'm missing the point somewhere along the line. Chat examples are quite common, so if I had a chat client then every message it wanted to send to a chat server it would create a client socket, send the message, and close the socket? Just doesn't seem right somehow.
Thank you.

client = new ClientConnection(sock);
You are passing the socket in constructor.
so you shouldn't do:
socket = new java.net.Socket(m_destination, m_portNumber);
just cache that vatiable from contructor as : this.sock = sock;
getting the reader and the writer is ok, also the server is ok.
I would use a Vector to be synchromized queue for sending messages, and the while (more-stuff-to-send) loop would check the queue and id empty than sleep, if has something to send, than pop the first and sent it while he must do stuff, or socket is closed my the client.

chat program in java using socket programming

here is the server side code of my program, the problem is, its accepting one client. when another client is connected, the isConnected method returns true, but the server does not gets the messages from the server. please help me as this is my first java program in netbeans, i have just finished studying core java.
class Conn extends Thread{
ServerSocket ss;
Socket s;
public void run()
{
status.setText(status.getText()+"connecting");
try{
while(true)
{
s=new Socket();
ss=new ServerSocket(3000);
s=ss.accept();
Read r=new Read(s);
r.start();
}
}catch(Exception e){}
}
}
class Read extends Thread{
DataInputStream inp;
PrintStream outp;
String str;
Read(Socket s)
{
try{
inp=new DataInputStream(s.getInputStream());
outp=new PrintStream(s.getOutputStream());
}catch(Exception sd){}
}
public void run()
{
status.setText(status.getText()+"\nreading");
try{
while(true)
{
str=inp.readLine();
chatwin.append(str);
outp.println(str);
}
}catch(Exception er){}
}
}

Move the while logic after the assignment of ss.
try
{
ss = new ServerSocket(3000);
while (ss.isBound())
{
s=ss.accept();
Read r = new Read(s);
r.start();
}
}
Your problem is that you can't do this multiple times:
ss = new ServerSocket(3000);
You've already created a ServerSocket that sits at port 3000, so when you try to make another one, it'll try to bind itself to that socket, and not succeed because your first ss is still sitting there. You should only create one ServerSocket and grab socket connections off of that one ServerSocket as threads connect to it.
Does this answer your questions?

ss.accept() will block until it receives a connection. How are you connecting to it?

Can a process connect to a socket that itself created?

EDIT: The code below throws no exception but has no output and hangs. It should output "Test message". In main(), we start a thread that's given a server socket listening on a random port. The main thread the tries to connect and communicate with the ServerSocket on that same random port, but is apparently failing. Why?
public class IntraProcSockTest {
private static int port;
private class Listener extends Thread {
public Listener() {
}
public void run() {
try {
ServerSocket serverSocket = new ServerSocket(0);
port = serverSocket.getLocalPort();
Socket socket = serverSocket.accept();
BufferedReader in;
String fromClient;
in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(
socket.getInputStream()));
while ((fromClient = in.readLine()) != null) {
System.out.println("From client: " + fromClient);
}
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
public IntraProcSockTest() {
new Listener().start();
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
new IntraProcSockTest();
try {
Thread.sleep(5000);
Socket socket = new Socket("localhost", port);
PrintWriter socketOut = new PrintWriter(socket.getOutputStream());
socketOut.println("Test message");
} catch (UnknownHostException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}

A process can connect to a socket created by itself, there is no problem. Show us the code that throws an exception and/or more details about the exception.
First of all, be careful not to specify a local port for the client socket (the one connecting to the other which is listening). Let the OS choose a random port. Remember that any socket is identified by four elements (remote host, local host, remote port, local port), if you bind both the server socket and the client socket on the same local port, let it be 4498, both sockets are defined as follows: (localhost, localhost, 4498, 4498) and this doesn't work. I suspect this might be your problem.
To avoid such problems, client sockets are often bound to a random port, chosen by the OS. Show us your code, expecially the part in which the client sockets gets created and connects to the server socket.
And about IPC, it is not always bad to use sockets as an inter-process or even intra-process communication technique. The performance is worse, obviously, and you might loose some code readability, but your software will be easily portable to a network (distributed) application. It's up to your plans, it's not like IPC sockets == bad.

To create a Socket connection in one thread you can.
ServerSocket ss = new ServerSocket(0); // open a random free port.
Socket c = new Socket(ss.getInetAddress(), ss.getLocalPort());
Socket s = ss.accept();
ss.close();
final byte[] bytes = "Hello World!".getBytes();
final OutputStream out = c.getOutputStream();
out.write(bytes.length);
out.write(bytes);
final DataInputStream in = new DataInputStream(s.getInputStream());
int len = in.read();
final byte[] b = new byte[len];
in.readFully(b);
System.out.println(new String(b));
c.close();
s.close();
If all you want is IPC within a Process, a socket is not the fastest or simplest way to go. Try using a Pipe (NIO) or PipeInput/OutputStream (IO). Its faster and simpler.
Pipe pipe = Pipe.open();
SinkChannel sink = pipe.sink();
SourceChannel source = pipe.source();
or
PipedOutputStream output = new PipedOutputStream();
PipedInputStream input = new PipedOutputStream(output);
BTW: You can connect a client and server Socket in the same thread, however
Using an Exchanger is 10x faster, and using a ring buffer is faster again.
If you want convenience, using an ExecutorService is the best way to deleagte work to a background pool of threads. This can still perform millions of tasks per second.