TCP IP Listener in windows Service

Question

I'm trying to create a windows service that needs to run in the background and listen for incoming traffic (a normal and regular TCP listener)

my code is:

private TcpListener server;

public void startServer()
    {
       // EventLog.WriteEntry(source, "connected on: " + ipAddress.ToString() + " port: " + Service1.Port.ToString());

        server = new TcpListener(IPAddress.Parse("127.0.0.1"), Service1.Port);

         server.Start();
        while (true)
        {
          var client = server.AcceptTcpClient();


            new Thread(work).Start(client);

        }

 public void work(object client)
    {
        string msg = null;
        var clientLocal = (TcpClient)client;


            using (NetworkStream ns = clientLocal.GetStream())
            using (StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(ns))
            {
            byte[] msgFullArray = new UTF8Encoding(true).GetBytes(msg);
            fs.Write(msgFullArray, 0, msg.Length);
            }

now if you don't look at the work method at all as whenever i start my service it freezes whenever i try to start it at my :

 var client = server.AcceptTcpClient();

meaning my service never gets to use the Thread or my Work method.. i can see from previous logging that it enters my while loop and then just times out the service

Answer 1

In your OnStart Method you have to instantiate a server class.

protected override void OnStart(string[] args)
{
  // Create the Server Object ans Start it.
  server = new TCPServer();
  server.StartServer();
}

that is responsible to handle the connections to the server by creating a new Thread (so that it is a non-blocking process)

public void StartServer()
{
  if (m_server!=null)
  {
    // Create a ArrayList for storing SocketListeners before
    // starting the server.
    m_socketListenersList = new ArrayList();

    // Start the Server and start the thread to listen client 
    // requests.
    m_server.Start();
    m_serverThread = new Thread(new ThreadStart(ServerThreadStart));
    m_serverThread.Start();

    // Create a low priority thread that checks and deletes client
    // SocktConnection objcts that are marked for deletion.
    m_purgingThread = new Thread(new ThreadStart(PurgingThreadStart));
    m_purgingThread.Priority=ThreadPriority.Lowest;
    m_purgingThread.Start();
  }
}

for each socket that it will be listening by a TCPListener.

private void ServerThreadStart()
{
  // Client Socket variable;
  Socket clientSocket = null;
  TCPSocketListener socketListener = null;
  while(!m_stopServer)
  {
    try
    {
      // Wait for any client requests and if there is any 
      // request from any client accept it (Wait indefinitely).
      clientSocket = m_server.AcceptSocket();

      // Create a SocketListener object for the client.
      socketListener = new TCPSocketListener(clientSocket);

      // Add the socket listener to an array list in a thread 
      // safe fashon.
      //Monitor.Enter(m_socketListenersList);
      lock(m_socketListenersList)
      {
        m_socketListenersList.Add(socketListener);
      }
      //Monitor.Exit(m_socketListenersList);

      // Start a communicating with the client in a different
      // thread.
      socketListener.StartSocketListener();
    }
    catch (SocketException se)
    {
      m_stopServer = true;
    }
  }
}

Here it is the full project article.