UNIT 6

SOCKET FOR CLIENTS

LH - 5HRS

PREPARED BY: ER. SHARAT MAHARJAN

NETWORK PROGRAMMING
PRIME COLLEGE, NAYABAZAAR
PREPARED BY: ER. SHARAT MAHARJAN
CONTENTS (LH-5HRS)
6.1 Introduction to Socket
6.2 Using Sockets: Investigating Protocols with telnet, Reading from
Servers with Sockets, Writing to Servers with Sockets
6.3 Constructing and connecting Sockets: Basic Constructors, Picking a
Local Interface to Connect From, Constructing Without Connecting,
Socket Addresses and Proxy Servers
6.4 Getting Information about a Socket: Closed or Connected, toString()
6.5 Setting Socket Options: TCP_NODELAY, SO_LINGER, SO_TIMEOUT,
SO_RCVBUF and SO_SNDBUF, SO_KEEPALIVE, SO_OOBINLINE,
SO_REUSEADDER and IP_TOS class of Services
6.6 Socket in GUI Applications: Whois and A Network Client Library
PREPARED BY: ER. SHARAT MAHARJAN
6.1 Introduction to Socket
A socket is a connection between two hosts. It can perform
seven basic operations:
• Connect to a remote machine
• Send data
• Receive data
• Close a connection
• Bind to a port
• Listen for incoming data
• Accept connections from remote machines on the bound
port
PREPARED BY: ER. SHARAT MAHARJAN
Java's Socket class, which is used by both clients and servers, has methods that
correspond to the first four of these operations. The last three operations are
needed only by servers, which wait for clients to connect to them. Java
programs normally use client sockets in the following fashion:
1. The program creates a new socket with a constructor.
2. The socket attempts to connect to the remote host.
3. Once the connection is established, the local and remote hosts get input
and output streams from the socket and use those streams to send data
to each other. This connection is full-duplex ; both hosts can send and
receive data simultaneously.
4. When the transmission of data is complete, one or both sides close the
connection. Some protocols, such as HTTP 1.0, require the connection to
be closed after each request is serviced. Others, such as FTP, allow
multiple requests to be processed in a single connection.
PREPARED BY: ER. SHARAT MAHARJAN
6.2 Using Sockets

Investigating Protocols With Telnet

✓telnet
✓open localhost 25
• This requests a connection to port 25, the SMTP port,
on the local machine; SMTP is the protocol used to
transfer email between servers or between a mail
client and a server. If you know the commands to
interact with an SMTP server, you can send email
without going through a mail program.
PREPARED BY: ER. SHARAT MAHARJAN
Reading from and Writing to Servers with Sockets
try{
//connect a socket to some host machine and port
Socket socket = new Socket(somehost, someport);
//connect a BufferedReader to read
BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new
InputStreamReader(socket.getInputStream()));
//connect a PrintWriter to write
PrintWriter writer = new
PrintWriter(socket.getOutputStream, true);//auto flush
}catch(Exception e){System.err.println(“Error - “+e);}
PREPARED BY: ER. SHARAT MAHARJAN
Half-closed sockets
• The close() method shuts down both input and
output from the socket. On occasion, you may want to
shut down only half of the connection, either input
or output. The shutdownInput() and
shutdownOutput() methods close only half the
connection:
public void shutdownInput() throws IOException
public void shutdownOutput() throws IOException

PREPARED BY: ER. SHARAT MAHARJAN

6.3 Constructing and connecting Sockets

• The java.net.Socket class is Java's fundamental class

for performing client-side TCP operations.
• The methods of the Socket class set up and tear down
connections and set various socket options.
• The interface that the Socket class provides to the
programmer is streams .
• The actual reading and writing of data over the
socket is accomplished via the familiar stream classes.

PREPARED BY: ER. SHARAT MAHARJAN

Basic Constructors
• The public Socket constructors are simple. Each lets you specify the host and the
port you want to connect to.
• Hosts may be specified as an InetAddress or a String . Ports are always specified as
int values from 0 to 65,535.
public Socket(String host, int port) throws UnknownHostException, IOException
• This constructor creates a TCP socket to the specified port on the specified host and
attempts to connect to the remote host.
For example:
try { Socket toOReilly = new Socket("www.oreilly.com", 80);
//send and receive data... } catch(UnknownHostException ex) {
System.err.println(ex);} catch (IOException ex) { System.err.println(ex); }
• If the domain name server cannot resolve the hostname or is not functioning, the
constructor throws an UnknownHostException . If the socket cannot be opened for
some other reason, the constructor throws an IOException.
PREPARED BY: ER. SHARAT MAHARJAN
LAB 1: Find out which of the first 1,024 ports seem to be hosting TCP
servers on a specified host.(PortScanner)
import java.io.*;
import java.net.*;
public class LowPortScanner {
public static void main(String[] args) {
for(int i=1;i<1024;i++) {
try {
Socket socket = new Socket(”localhost",i);//creates socket object //only if no
errors(valid host and open port)-errors(unknown host or close port)
System.out.println("There is a server on port "+i+" of localhost.");
} catch (UnknownHostException e) {
System.out.println(e);
}catch(IOException e) {
System.out.println("There is a server off port "+i+" of localhost");
}}}}
PREPARED BY: ER. SHARAT MAHARJAN
public Socket(InetAddress host, int port) throws IOException
• Like the previous constructor, this constructor creates a TCP socket to
the specified port on the specified host and tries to connect. It differs
by using an InetAddress object to specify the host rather than a
hostname.
• For example:
try{
InetAddress oreilly = InetAddress.getByName("www.oreilly.com");
Socket oreillySocket = new Socket(oreilly , 80);
// send and receive data... } catch (UnknownHostException ex) {
System.err.println(ex); } catch (IOException ex) { System.err.println(ex);
}
• This technique helps to improve on the efficiency of previous lab.

PREPARED BY: ER. SHARAT MAHARJAN

LAB 2: Find out which of the ports at or above 1,024 seem to be hosting TCP servers.
import java.io.*;
import java.net.*;
public class HighPortScanner {
public static void main(String[] args) {
try {
InetAddress address = InetAddress.getByName("localhost");
for(int i=1024;i<65536;i++) {
try {
Socket socket = new Socket(address, i);
System.out.println("There is a server on port "+i+" of localhost.");
}catch(IOException e) {
//System.out.println("There is a server off port "+i+" of localhost");
}}} catch (UnknownHostException e1) {
System.out.println("Unknown Host.");
}}}

PREPARED BY: ER. SHARAT MAHARJAN

Picking a Local Interface to Connect From
public Socket(String host, int port, InetAddress interface, int
localPort) throws IOException, UnknownHostException
• This constructor creates a socket to the specified port on the
specified host and tries to connect.
• It connects to the host and port specified in the first two arguments.
• It connects from the local network interface and port specified by the
last two arguments.
• The network interface may be either physical (e.g., a different
Ethernet card) or virtual (a multihomed host).
• If 0 is passed for the localPort argument, Java chooses a random
available port between 1,024 and 65,535.
PREPARED BY: ER. SHARAT MAHARJAN
public Socket(InetAddress host, int port, InetAddress interface, int
localPort) throws IOException
This constructor is identical to the previous one except that the host to
connect to is passed as an InetAddress , not a String .
It creates a TCP socket to the specified port on the specified host from
the specified interface and local port, and tries to connect.
If it fails, it throws an IOException.

PREPARED BY: ER. SHARAT MAHARJAN

Constructing Without Connecting
protected Socket( )
• The Socket class also has two (three in Java 1.5) constructors that
create an object without connecting the socket. You use these if
you're subclassing Socket , perhaps to implement a special kind of
socket that encrypts transactions or understands your local proxy
server.
protected Socket(SocketImpl impl)
• This constructor installs the SocketImpl object impl when it creates
the new Socket object. The Socket object is created but is not
connected. This constructor is usually called by subclasses of
java.net.Socket . You can pass null to this constructor if you don't
need a SocketImpl .

PREPARED BY: ER. SHARAT MAHARJAN

Socket Addresses
• The SocketAddress class represents a connection endpoint.
• The primary purpose of the SocketAddress class is to provide a store for
socket connection information such as the IP address and port that can be
reused to create new sockets, even after the original socket is
disconnected.
• Socket class offers two methods:
public SocketAddress getRemoteSocketAddress()
public SocketAddress getLocalSocketAddress()
• For example, first you might connect to Yahoo! then store its address:
Socket socket = new Socket(“www.yahoo.com”,80);
SocketAddress yahoo = socket.getRemoteSocketAddress();
socket.close();
• Later, you could connect to Yahoo! using this address:
Socket socket2 = new Socket();
socket2.connect(yahoo); PREPARED BY: ER. SHARAT MAHARJAN
Proxy Servers
• The last constructor creates an unconnected socket that connects
through a specified proxy server:
public Socket(Proxy proxy)
• For example, this code fragment uses the SOCKS proxy server at
myproxy.example.com to connect to the host login.ibiblio.org:
SocketAddress proxyAddress= new
InetSocketAddress(“myproxy.example.com”,1080);
Proxy proxy = new Proxy(Proxy.Type.SOCKS, proxyAddress);
Socket socket = new Socket(proxy);
SocketAddress host = new InetSocketAddress(“login.ibiblio.org”,25);
socket.connect(host);
PREPARED BY: ER. SHARAT MAHARJAN
6.4 Getting Information about a Socket

• To the programmer, Socket objects appear to have several

private fields that are accessible through various getter
methods.
• Actually, sockets have only one field, a SocketImpl ; the
fields that appear to belong to the Socket actually reflect
native code in the SocketImpl.
• This way, socket implementations can be changed without
disturbing the program for example, to support firewalls
and proxy servers.

PREPARED BY: ER. SHARAT MAHARJAN

1. public InetAddress getInetAddress( )
Given a Socket object, the getInetAddress( ) method tells you
which remote host the Socket is connected to or, if the
connection is now closed, which host the Socket was
connected to when it was connected.
For example:
try {
Socket socket= new Socket(“www.prime.edu.np", 80);
InetAddress host = socket.getInetAddress( );
System.out.println("Connected to remote host " + host); }
catch (UnknownHostException ex) { System.err.println(ex); }
catch (IOException ex) { System.err.println(ex); }
PREPARED BY: ER. SHARAT MAHARJAN
2. public int getPort( )
The getPort( ) method tells you which port the Socket is (or
was or will be) connected to on the remote host.
For example:
try {
Socket socket = new Socket("java.sun.com", 80);
int port = socket.getPort( );
System.out.println("Connected on remote port " + port); }
catch (UnknownHostException ex) { System.err.println(ex); }
catch (IOException ex) { System.err.println(ex); }
PREPARED BY: ER. SHARAT MAHARJAN
3. public int getLocalPort( )
There are two ends to a connection: the remote host and the local
host. To find the port number for the local end of a connection,
call getLocalPort( ).
For example:
try {
Socket socket = new Socket(“www.prime.edu.np", 80, true);
int localPort = socket.getLocalPort( );
System.out.println("Connecting from local port " + localPort);
} catch (UnknownHostException ex) {
System.err.println(ex); } catch (IOException ex) {
System.err.println(ex); }
PREPARED BY: ER. SHARAT MAHARJAN
4. public InetAddress getLocalAddress( )
The getLocalAddress() method tells you which network interface
a socket is bound to. You normally use this on a multihomed host,
or one with multiple network interfaces.
For example:
try {
Socket socket = new Socket(hostname, 80);
InetAddress localAddress = socket.getLocalAddress( );
System.out.println("Connecting from local address “
+localAddress); }catch (UnknownHostException ex) {
System.err.println(ex); } catch (IOException ex) {
System.err.println(ex); }
PREPARED BY: ER. SHARAT MAHARJAN
LAB 3: WAP to attempt to open a socket for www.prime.edu.np or any other host,
and then uses these four methods to print the remote host, the remote port, the
local address, and the local port.
import java.io.*;
import java.net.*;
public class Example3 {
public static void main(String[] args) {
try {
Socket socket = new Socket("www.prime.edu.np", 80);
System.out.println("Connected to " + socket.getInetAddress( )+ " on port " +
socket.getPort( ) + " from port "+ socket.getLocalPort( ) + " of “ +
socket.getLocalAddress( ));}
catch (UnknownHostException ex) {System.err.println("I can't find the host." );
}
catch (SocketException ex) {System.err.println("Could not connect to host.");
}
catch (IOException ex) {System.err.println(ex);}}}

PREPARED BY: ER. SHARAT MAHARJAN

5. public InputStream getInputStream( ) throws IOException
• The getInputStream( ) method returns an input stream that can read
data from the socket into a program. You usually chain this
InputStream to a filter stream or reader that offers more
functionality DataInputStream or InputStreamReader.
• For performance reasons, it's also a very good idea to buffer the
input by chaining it to a BufferedInputStream and/or a
BufferedReader .

PREPARED BY: ER. SHARAT MAHARJAN

6. public OutputStream getOutputStream( ) throws IOException
• The getOutputStream() method returns a raw OutputStream for
writing data from your application to the other end of the socket.
• You usually chain this stream to a more convenient class like
DataOutputStream or OutputStreamWriter or PrintWriter before
using it.

PREPARED BY: ER. SHARAT MAHARJAN

LAB 4: WAP for EchoClient.
import java.io.*;
import java.net.*;
public class EchoClient {
public static void main(String[] args) {
try {
Socket socket = new Socket("localhost",4567);
BufferedReader in_socket = new BufferedReader(new
InputStreamReader(socket.getInputStream()));
BufferedReader in_user = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in));
PrintWriter out_socket = new PrintWriter(socket.getOutputStream(),true);
String message;
while(true) {
message = in_user.readLine();
if(message.endsWith(".")) break;
out_socket.println(message);
System.out.println(in_socket.readLine());}
in_socket.close();
out_socket.close();
socket.close();
} catch (UnknownHostException e) {
System.err.println("Unknown Host.");
}catch(IOException e) {
System.err.println("Socket can't be created.");}}} PREPARED BY: ER. SHARAT MAHARJAN
• Java 1.4 adds an isClosed() method that returns true if the socket has been closed, false
if it isn't:
public boolean isClosed( ) // Java 1.4
• If you're uncertain about a socket's state, you can check it with this method rather than
risking an IOException . For example,
if (socket.isClosed( )) { // do something... } else { // do something else... }
• However, this is not a perfect test. If the socket has never been connected in the first
place, isClosed( ) returns false, even though the socket isn't exactly open.
• Java 1.4 also adds an isConnected() method:
public boolean isConnected( ) // Java 1.4
• The name is a little misleading. It does not tell you if the socket is currently connected
to a remote host (that is, if it is unclosed). Instead it tells you whether the socket has
ever been connected to a remote host. If the socket was able to connect to the remote
host at all, then this method returns true, even after that socket has been closed. To tell
if a socket is currently open, you need to check that isConnected( ) returns true and
isClosed() returns false. For example:
boolean connected = socket.isConnected( ) && ! socket.isClosed( ); PREPARED BY: ER. SHARAT MAHARJAN
The Object Methods:
public String toString()
• The toString() method produces a string that looks like this:
Socket[addr=www.prime.edu.np/104.21.95.59,port=80,localport=62859]

PREPARED BY: ER. SHARAT MAHARJAN

6.5 Setting Socket Options
Socket options specify how the native sockets on which the Java
Socket class relies send and receive data. You can set four options in
Java 1.1, six in Java 1.2, seven in Java 1.3, and eight in Java 1.4:
1. TCP_NODELAY
2. SO_LINGER
3. SO_TIMEOUT
4. SO_RCVBUF (Java 1.2 and later)
5. SO_SNDBUF (Java 1.2 and later) //socket option send buffer size
6. SO_KEEPALIVE (Java 1.3 and later)
7. OOBINLINE (Java 1.4 and later)
PREPARED BY: ER. SHARAT MAHARJAN
1. TCP_NODELAY
public void setTcpNoDelay(boolean on) throws SocketException
public boolean getTcpNoDelay( ) throws SocketException
• Setting TCP_NODELAY to true ensures that packets are sent as quickly as
possible regardless of their size.
• Before sending another packet, the local host waits to receive
acknowledgment of the previous packet from the remote system. This is
known as Nagle's algorithm. The problem with Nagle's algorithm is that if
the remote system doesn't send acknowledgments back to the local
system fast enough, applications that depend on the steady transfer of
small bits of information may slow down.
• Setting TCP_NODELAY to true defeats this buffering scheme, so that all
packets are sent as soon as they're ready.
• SocketException will be thrown only if the underlying socket
implementation doesn't support the TCP_ NODELAY option.
• For example, the following fragment turns on TCP_NODELAY for the socket
s: s.setTcpNoDelay(true);
PREPARED BY: ER. SHARAT MAHARJAN
2. SO_LINGER
public void setSoLinger(boolean on, int seconds) throws SocketException
public int getSoLinger( ) throws SocketException
• The SO_LINGER option specifies what to do with datagrams that have not yet been sent when a
socket is closed(during sending). If the linger time is set to zero, any unsent packets are thrown
away when the socket is closed. If the linger time is any positive value, the close( ) method
blocks while waiting the specified number of seconds for the data to be sent and the
acknowledgments to be received. When that number of seconds has passed, the socket is
closed and neither any remaining data is sent nor any acknowledgment is received.
• These two methods each throw a SocketException if the underlying socket implementation does
not support the SO_LINGER option. The setSoLinger() method can also throw an
IllegalArgumentException if you try to set the linger time to a negative value. However, the
getSoLinger( ) method may return -1 to indicate that this option is disabled,
• For example, to set the linger timeout for the Socket s to four minutes, if it's not already set to
some other value:
if (s.getTcpSoLinger( ) == -1) s.setSoLinger(true, 240);
PREPARED BY: ER. SHARAT MAHARJAN
3. SO_TIMEOUT
public void setSoTimeout(int milliseconds) throws SocketException
public int getSoTimeout( ) throws SocketException
• Normally when you try to read data from a socket, the readLine() call
blocks as long as necessary to get enough bytes. By setting
SO_TIMEOUT, you ensure that the call will not block for more than a
fixed number of milliseconds. Although this readLine( ) call failed,
you can try to read from the socket again. The next call may succeed.
• Timeouts are given in milliseconds. Zero is interpreted as an infinite
timeout; it is the default value. For example, to set the timeout value
of the Socket object s to 3 minutes if it isn't already set, specify
180,000 milliseconds:
if (s.getSoTimeout( ) == 0) s.setSoTimeout(180000);
• These two methods each throw a SocketException if the underlying
socket implementation does not support the SO_TIMEOUT option.
PREPARED BY: ER. SHARAT MAHARJAN
4. SO_RCVBUF
• Most TCP stacks use buffers to improve network performance. Larger buffers
tend to improve performance for reasonably fast connections.
public void setReceiveBufferSize(int size) throws SocketException,
IllegalArgumentException
public int getReceiveBufferSize( ) throws SocketException
• The getReceiveBufferSize() method returns the number of bytes in the buffer
that can be used for input from this socket.
• The setReceiveBufferSize() method suggests a number of bytes to use for
buffering output on this socket.
• These methods throw a SocketException if the underlying socket implementation
does not recognize the SO_RCVBUF option.

PREPARED BY: ER. SHARAT MAHARJAN

5. SO_SNDBUF
• Starting in Java 1.2, there are methods to get and set the suggested send buffer
size used for network output:
public void setSendBufferSize(int size)throws SocketException,
IllegalArgumentException
public int getSendBufferSize( ) throws SocketException
• The getSendBufferSize() method returns the number of bytes in the buffer used
for output on this socket.
• The setSendBufferSize( ) method suggests a number of bytes to use for
buffering output on this socket.
• These methods throw a SocketException if the underlying socket implementation
doesn't understand the SO_SNDBUF option.

PREPARED BY: ER. SHARAT MAHARJAN

6. SO_KEEPALIVE
• If SO_KEEPALIVE is turned on, the client will occasionally send a data packet over
an idle connection (most commonly once every two hours), just to make sure the
server hasn't crashed. If the server fails to respond to this packet, the client
keeps trying for a little more than 11 minutes until it receives a response. If it
doesn't receive a response within 12 minutes, the client closes the socket.
• Java 1.3 adds methods to turn SO_KEEPALIVE on and off and to determine its
current state:
public void setKeepAlive(boolean on) throws SocketException
public boolean getKeepAlive( ) throws SocketException
• The default for SO_KEEPALIVE is false. This code fragment turns SO_KEEPALIVE
off, if it's turned on:
if (s.getKeepAlive( )) s.setKeepAlive(false);

PREPARED BY: ER. SHARAT MAHARJAN

7. OOBINLINE
• TCP includes a feature that sends a single byte of "urgent" data. This data is sent
immediately. Furthermore, the receiver is notified when the urgent data is
received and may elect to process the urgent data before it processes any other
data that has already been received.
• Java 1.4 adds support for both sending and receiving such urgent data. The
sending method is named, obviously enough, sendUrgentData( ) :
public void sendUrgentData(int data) throws IOException
• This method sends the lowest order byte of its argument almost immediately. If
necessary, any currently cached data is flushed first.

PREPARED BY: ER. SHARAT MAHARJAN

6.6 Socket in GUI Applications

PRACTICAL IN LAB.

PREPARED BY: ER. SHARAT MAHARJAN

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION

PREPARED BY: ER. SHARAT MAHARJAN