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Can a socket be Sending and Receiving at the same time?

Hi Experts

I have a problem that is really getting on my nerves now and would really appreciate some help.

Two apps - one is a front end client, the other is a server. They are communicating via sockets.

At some stage the user will transmit a load of files sequentially from the client to the server. I am looping over the blocking method Socket.SendFile for this.

When the server receives the files it sends a status notification message to the client.

The client receives the status notification messages asynchronously in a different thread to the one used for sending files.

The problem is I keep getting the exception: A blocking operation was interrupted by a call to WSACancelBlockingCall at some arbitrary point the n'th iteration of the SendFile command.

I am assuming the socket cannot be sending and receiving at the same time, although any other suggestions would be welcome.

Butterhook

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

MasterThai

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butterhook

ASKER

Thanks for your comment. I will try combining Socket.BeginSendFile and using wait handles today and see how I get on.

butterhook

ASKER

Any pointers as to why the exception is occurring?

butterhook

ASKER

Although I have now solved the problem by non blocking sockets as suggested by MasterThai I'd still like to know under what circumstances the blocking operation would be interrupted by a call to WSACancelBlockingCall, and also in response to my original question which was "Can a blocked socket be sending and receiving at the same time? If it is blocked on send does that mean it cannot receive on another thread?"

I will still award the points to MasterThai in due course but I would appreciate a more full explanation.

Thanks!

Butterhook