Broadcasting a message to multiple clients from a server using UDP protocol - c

Question

i have two code here for a UDP chat with a broadcasting mechanism where the server can broadcast a message to all clients simultaneously
Server code...
#include<stdio.h>
#include<string.h>
#include<sys/stat.h>
#include<sys/types.h>
#include<sys/socket.h>
#include<netinet/in.h>
#include<arpa/inet.h>
int main(int argc, char *argv[] )
{
struct sockaddr_in client,server;
int s,n;
char b1[100],b2[100];
s=socket(AF_INET,SOCK_DGRAM,0);
server.sin_family=AF_INET;
server.sin_port=htons(2000);
server.sin_addr.s_addr=inet_addr("127.0.0.1");
bind(s,(struct sockaddr *)&server,sizeof(server));
printf("\nServer ready,waiting for client....\n");
n=sizeof(client);
int sock; /* Socket */
struct sockaddr_in broadcastAddr; /* Broadcast address */
char *broadcastIP; /* IP broadcast address */
unsigned short broadcastPort; /* Server port */
char *sendString; /* String to broadcast */
int broadcastPermission; /* Socket opt to set permission to broadcast */
unsigned int sendStringLen; /* Length of string to broadcast */
if (argc < 4) /* Test for correct number of parameters */
{
fprintf(stderr,"Usage: %s <IP Address> <Port> <Send String>\n", argv[0]);
exit(1);
}
broadcastIP = argv[1]; /* First arg: broadcast IP address */
broadcastPort = atoi(argv[2]); /* Second arg: broadcast port */
sendString = argv[3]; /* Third arg: string to broadcast */
/* Create socket for sending/receiving datagrams */
sock = socket(PF_INET, SOCK_DGRAM, IPPROTO_UDP);
broadcastPermission = 1;
while(1)
{
recvfrom(s,b1,sizeof(b1),0,(struct sockaddr *) &client,&n);
if(!(strcmp(b1,"end")))
break;
printf("\nClient:%s",b1);
printf("\nServer:");
gets(b2);
sendto(s,b2,sizeof(b2),0,(struct sockaddr *) &client,n);
broadcastPermission = 1;
setsockopt(sock, SOL_SOCKET, SO_BROADCAST, (void *) &broadcastPermission,sizeof(broadcastPermission));
/* Construct local address structure */
//memset(&broadcastAddr, 0, sizeof(broadcastAddr)); /* Zero out structure */
broadcastAddr.sin_family = AF_INET; /* Internet address family */
broadcastAddr.sin_addr.s_addr = inet_addr(broadcastIP);/* Broadcast IP address */
broadcastAddr.sin_port = htons(broadcastPort); /* Broadcast port */
sendStringLen = strlen(sendString);
for (;;) /* Run forever */
{
/* Broadcast sendString in datagram to clients every 3 seconds*/
sendto(sock, sendString, sendStringLen, 0, (struct sockaddr *) &broadcastAddr, sizeof(broadcastAddr));
// DieWithError("sendto() sent a different number of bytes than expected");
//sleep(3); /* Avoids flooding the network */
}
}
}
Client code...
#include<stdio.h>
#include<string.h>
#include<sys/stat.h>
#include<sys/types.h>
#include<sys/socket.h>
#include<netinet/in.h>
#include<arpa/inet.h>
#define MAXRECVSTRING 255
int main(int argc , char argv[])
{
struct sockaddr_in client,server;
int s,n;
char b1[100],b2[100];
s=socket(AF_INET,SOCK_DGRAM,0);
server.sin_family=AF_INET;
server.sin_port=htons(2000);
server.sin_addr.s_addr=inet_addr("127.0.0.1");
printf("\nClient ready....\n");
n=sizeof(server);
int sock; /* Socket */
struct sockaddr_in broadcastAddr; /* Broadcast Address */
unsigned short broadcastPort; /* Port */
char recvString[MAXRECVSTRING+1]; /* Buffer for received string */
int recvStringLen; /* Length of received string */
if (argc != 2) /* Test for correct number of arguments */
{
fprintf(stderr,"Usage: %s <Broadcast Port>\n", argv[0]);
exit(1);
}
printf("\nClient ready…11111.\n");
broadcastPort = htons(argv[1]); /* First arg: broadcast port */
printf("\nClient ready….1\n");
/* Create a best-effort datagram socket using UDP */
if(sock = socket(PF_INET, SOCK_DGRAM, IPPROTO_UDP)<0)
printf("no sock created");
printf("\nClient ready….2\n");
while(1)
{
printf("\nClient:");
gets(b2);
sendto(s,b2,sizeof(b2),0,(struct sockaddr *) &server,n);
if(strcmp(b2,"end")==0)
break;
recvfrom(s,b1,sizeof(b1),0,NULL,NULL);
printf("\nServer:%s",b1);
broadcastAddr.sin_family = AF_INET; /* Internet address family */
broadcastAddr.sin_addr.s_addr = htonl(INADDR_ANY); /* Any incoming interface */
broadcastAddr.sin_port = htons(broadcastPort); /* Broadcast port */
/* Bind to the broadcast port */
bind(sock, (struct sockaddr *) &broadcastAddr, sizeof(broadcastAddr));
/* Receive a single datagram from the server */
recvStringLen = recvfrom(sock, recvString, MAXRECVSTRING, 0, NULL, 0);
recvString[recvStringLen] = '\0';
printf("Received: %s\n", recvString); /* Print the received string */
}
close(sock);
}
These code run without any error but when i send a string from client to the server the server is unable to receive the string and vice versa.
If someone could help me out as to why this is happening.
i am running both the server and client on the same system in different terminal windows..hence the local host address

Answer 1

Some platforms, e.g. Windows, won't receive broadcasts unless the socket is bound to INADDR_ANY, i.e. 0.0.0.0.

Answer 2

To start with:
server.sin_port=2000;
You forget to make this network-order.

Answer 3

In your server code:
The socket is not bound to any IP address. Although it broadcasts the message and the client receives; the vice-versa won't work.
Thus, bind your server and client side sockets to 2 different IP addresses.
When the server broadcasts the message, use appropriate broadcast address (see the subnet of the server-client IP) in the sendto function.