UdpClient Class

The UdpClient class provides simple methods for sending and receiving connectionless UDP datagrams in blocking synchronous mode. Because UDP is a connectionless transport protocol, you do not need to establish a remote host connection prior to sending and receiving data. You do, however, have the option of establishing a default remote host in one of the following two ways:

• Create an instance of the UdpClient class using the remote host name and port number as parameters.

• Create an instance of the UdpClient class and then call the Connect method.

You can use any of the send methods provided in the UdpClient to send data to a remote device. Use the Receive method to receive data from remote hosts.

Note
Do not call Send using a host name or IPEndPoint if you have already specified a default remote host. If you do, UdpClient will throw an exception.

UdpClient methods also allow you to send and receive multicast datagrams. Use the JoinMulticastGroup method to subscribe a UdpClient to a multicast group. Use the DropMulticastGroup method to unsubscribe a UdpClient from a multicast group.

The following example establishes a UdpClient connection using the host name www.contoso.com on port 11000. A small string message is sent to two separate remote host machines. The Receive method blocks execution until a message is received. Using the IPEndPoint passed to Receive, the identity of the responding host is revealed.

// This constructor arbitrarily assigns the local port number.
UdpClient udpClient = new UdpClient(11000);
    try{
         udpClient.Connect("www.contoso.com", 11000);

         // Sends a message to the host to which you have connected.
         Byte[] sendBytes = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes("Is anybody there?");

         udpClient.Send(sendBytes, sendBytes.Length);

         // Sends a message to a different host using optional hostname and port parameters.
         UdpClient udpClientB = new UdpClient();
         udpClientB.Send(sendBytes, sendBytes.Length, "AlternateHostMachineName", 11000);

         //IPEndPoint object will allow us to read datagrams sent from any source.
         IPEndPoint RemoteIpEndPoint = new IPEndPoint(IPAddress.Any, 0);

         // Blocks until a message returns on this socket from a remote host.
         Byte[] receiveBytes = udpClient.Receive(ref RemoteIpEndPoint); 
         string returnData = Encoding.ASCII.GetString(receiveBytes);

         // Uses the IPEndPoint object to determine which of these two hosts responded.
         Console.WriteLine("This is the message you received " +
    	                              returnData.ToString());
         Console.WriteLine("This message was sent from " +
                                     RemoteIpEndPoint.Address.ToString() +
                                     " on their port number " +
                                     RemoteIpEndPoint.Port.ToString());

          udpClient.Close();
          udpClientB.Close();

          }  
       catch (Exception e ) {
                  Console.WriteLine(e.ToString());
        }

.NET Framework

.NET Framework Client Profile

• SocketPermission  

  To establish an outgoing connection or accept an incoming request.

Windows 8 Release Preview, Windows Server 2012, Windows 7, Windows Vista SP2, Windows Server 2008 SP2, Windows Server 2008 R2 (Server Core Role supported with SP1 or later; Itanium not supported)

The .NET Framework does not support all versions of every platform. For a list of the supported versions, see .NET Framework System Requirements.

Reference

Other Resources