sending and receiving UDP packets using Java?

Question

I have made a program to send an UDP packets from a client to a server here is the transmitter code

import java.io.IOException;
import java.net.*;

/**
 *
 * @author hp
 */
public class JavaApplication9 {

    /**
     * @param args the command line arguments
     */
    public static void main(String[] args) throws UnknownHostException, SocketException, IOException  {
        // TODO code application logic here
        byte[] buffer = {10,23,12,31,43,32,24};
        byte [] IP={-64,-88,1,106};
        InetAddress address = InetAddress.getByAddress(IP);
        DatagramPacket packet = new DatagramPacket(
                buffer, buffer.length, address, 57
                );
        DatagramSocket datagramSocket = new DatagramSocket();
        datagramSocket.send(packet);
        System.out.println(InetAddress.getLocalHost().getHostAddress());


    }
}

The receiver code function is

public void run(){

    try{
        DatagramSocket serverSocket = new DatagramSocket(port);
        byte[] receiveData = new byte[8];
        byte[] sendData = new byte[8];

        while(true)
           {
              DatagramPacket receivePacket = new DatagramPacket(receiveData, receiveData.length);
              serverSocket.receive(receivePacket);
              String sentence = new String( receivePacket.getData());
              System.out.println("RECEIVED: " + sentence);
              InetAddress IPAddress = receivePacket.getAddress();
              String sendString = "polo";
              sendData = sendString.getBytes();
              DatagramPacket sendPacket = new DatagramPacket(sendData, sendData.length, IPAddress, port);
              serverSocket.send(sendPacket);
           }
    }catch (Exception e){
    }
}

I have used the WireShark program . The UDP packet is received in the WireShark program at the receiver but the Java program wouldn't recognize it , the program just keeps listening to the port and nothing happens ?

Answer 1

The receiver must set port of receiver to match port set in sender DatagramPacket. For debugging try listening on port > 1024 (e.g. 8000 or 9000). Ports < 1024 are typically used by system services and need admin access to bind on such a port.

If the receiver sends packet to the hard-coded port it's listening to (e.g. port 57) and the sender is on the same machine then you would create a loopback to the receiver itself. Always use the port specified from the packet and in case of production software would need a check in any case to prevent such a case.

Another reason a packet won't get to destination is the wrong IP address specified in the sender. UDP unlike TCP will attempt to send out a packet even if the address is unreachable and the sender will not receive an error indication. You can check this by printing the address in the receiver as a precaution for debugging.

In the sender you set:

 byte [] IP= { (byte)192, (byte)168, 1, 106 };
 InetAddress address = InetAddress.getByAddress(IP);

but might be simpler to use the address in string form:

 InetAddress address = InetAddress.getByName("192.168.1.106");

In other words, you set target as 192.168.1.106. If this is not the receiver then you won't get the packet.

Here's a simple UDP Receiver that works :

import java.io.IOException;
import java.net.*;

public class Receiver {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        int port = args.length == 0 ? 57 : Integer.parseInt(args[0]);
        new Receiver().run(port);
    }

    public void run(int port) {    
      try {
        DatagramSocket serverSocket = new DatagramSocket(port);
        byte[] receiveData = new byte[8];
        String sendString = "polo";
        byte[] sendData = sendString.getBytes("UTF-8");

        System.out.printf("Listening on udp:%s:%d%n",
                InetAddress.getLocalHost().getHostAddress(), port);     
        DatagramPacket receivePacket = new DatagramPacket(receiveData,
                           receiveData.length);

        while(true)
        {
              serverSocket.receive(receivePacket);
              String sentence = new String( receivePacket.getData(), 0,
                                 receivePacket.getLength() );
              System.out.println("RECEIVED: " + sentence);
              // now send acknowledgement packet back to sender     
              InetAddress IPAddress = receivePacket.getAddress();
              DatagramPacket sendPacket = new DatagramPacket(sendData, sendData.length,
                   IPAddress, receivePacket.getPort());
              serverSocket.send(sendPacket);
        }
      } catch (IOException e) {
              System.out.println(e);
      }
      // should close serverSocket in finally block
    }
}