Sockets: connection refused - c

Question

I made a TCP Client/Server and I can run it one time. But when I try to run it more than one time, it gives me the following error: "Connection refused". Here's my code.
Client
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <errno.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <sys/socket.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <netinet/in.h>
#include <arpa/inet.h>
int main() {
int net_socket = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, 0);
struct sockaddr_in net_addr;
net_addr.sin_addr.s_addr = inet_addr("127.0.0.1");
net_addr.sin_family = AF_INET;
net_addr.sin_port = htons(3250);
int connection_state = connect(net_socket, (struct sockaddr*)&net_addr, sizeof(net_addr));
if (connection_state == 0) {
printf("Connected with the server.\n");
}
else {
printf("Connection with the server failed. [%s]\n", strerror(errno));
}
char net_message[256];
recv(net_socket, net_message, sizeof(net_message), 0);
close(net_socket);
shutdown(net_socket, SHUT_RDWR);
return 0;
}
Server
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <errno.h>
#include <sys/socket.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <netinet/in.h>
#include <arpa/inet.h>
int main() {
int net_socket = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, 0);
struct sockaddr_in net_addr;
net_addr.sin_addr.s_addr = inet_addr("127.0.0.1");
net_addr.sin_family = AF_INET;
net_addr.sin_port = htons(3250);
bind(net_socket, (struct sockaddr*)&net_addr, sizeof(net_addr));
listen(net_socket, 1);
struct sockaddr_in cl_addr;
int cl_size = sizeof(cl_addr);
int cl_socket = accept(net_socket, (struct sockaddr*)&cl_addr, (socklen_t*)&cl_size);
int loop = 1;
char net_message[256];
send(cl_socket, net_message, sizeof(net_message), 0);
close(net_socket);
close(cl_socket);
shutdown(net_socket, SHUT_RDWR);
shutdown(cl_socket, SHUT_RDWR);
return 0;
}
I've been trying to solve the problem by many ways but I'm a newbie. Thanks for the help in advance!

Answer 1

The problem is with your server lacking the SO_REUSEADDR socket option which leads to the bind() syscall failing. The reason is, that after a client disconnects from the server, the connection is still known by the system in TIME_WAIT state, to wait for late packets. These lead to the bind() to fail with EADDRINUSE if the above mentioned socket option is not set.
Use the following:
...
int one = 1;
setsockopt(net_socket, SOL_SOCKET, SO_REUSEADDR, &one, sizeof(one));
bind(net_socket, (struct sockaddr*)&net_addr, sizeof(net_addr));
...
and do error checks for all syscalls! That would have shown you the problem much earlier and had saved you much time.
Some more issues:
You are sending an uninitialized buffer net_message
A shutdown on a listen socket isn't sensible at all, since no connection is established on it (this here: shutdown(net_socket, SHUT_RDWR);)
The shutdown on the client socket has - if at all - to be performed before the close(cl_socket);. But it is not necessary at all in that case.