Need Alternative Solution

[Venix]

A few days ago I made a topic where I was struggling to make a program that would check if my friend’s minecraft server was online by connecting to it through the use of TCP. Thanks to the help of PhoenixXL I figured out what my code was missing and then made the changes to the code. When running the code at first it appeared to work perfectly and I requested my friend to turn his server on and off multiple times to make sure of this. The only problem occurred was when I tried to connect to the server whilst the program was running, unfortunately I was unable to connect to the server with ease and the connection would often be interrupted whilst logging in. I believe this is because of limitations with TCP and not being able to make two connections from the same I.P with the same port however I am not sure of this.

I think an alternative solution may be to try and make a connection to the server through UDP instead however I wouldn't be sure how to do this; any insight on an alternative solution would be appreciated.

Here is a snippet of the functioning part of the code that would make a connection with the server to check if it was online.

TCPStartup()
$IP = TCPNameToIP("######.com")
$ServerStatus = TCPConnect($IP, 25565)
If $IP = "" Then
GUICtrlSetData($StatusLabel, "Status: Offline")
EndIf
If $ServerStatus = -1 Then
GUICtrlSetData($StatusLabel, "Status: Offline")
Else
GUICtrlSetData($StatusLabel, "Status: Online")
EndIf

Edited August 3, 2012 by Venix

[water]

You use functions named TCP* to connect to the server using TCP. To connect to the server using UDP you should use functions named ...?

Right. UDP*

[Venix]

You use functions named TCP* to connect to the server using TCP. To connect to the server using UDP you should use functions named ...?

Right. UDP*

However I did not see a function listed as UDPConnect so I was unsure of this because there is a TCPConnect in the help file but no UDP. For this reason I'm not entirely sure which of the UDP functions would carry out the task I require.

Edit: I probably should have stated this in the original post sorry .

Edited August 4, 2012 by Venix

[water]

I would give UDPOpen a try.

[Venix]

Unfortunately this function doesent seem to do what I am after or I'm doing something wrong don't know but thanks for helping.

[water]

TCPConnect: Create a socket connected to an existing server

UDPOpen: Open a socket connected to an existing server

How do you call UDPOpen? Whats the value of @error after the call?

[Venix]

This was my test code and It returns 0 every time even when i have a correct I.P address and port entered. I basically just want to be able to tell if a server is online without it interupting the login of the game. I can't use something as simple as ping which i would like to do because it does not let you use ports .

UDPStartup()
$IP = TCPNameToIP("#######.com")
$ServerStatus = UDPOpen($IP, 25565)
UDPShutdown()
If $IP = "" Then
MsgBox(64, "Server Status", "Offline")
EndIf
If $ServerStatus = $ServerStatus[0]=0 Then
MsgBox(64, "Server Status", "Offline")
MsgBox(64, "Server Status", $ServerStatus)
Else
MsgBox(64, "Server Status", "Online")
EndIf

Edited August 4, 2012 by Venix

[BrewManNH]

What exactly is this line "If $ServerStatus = $ServerStatus[0]=0 Then" supposed to be doing? UDPOpen returns an array regardless of whether it's successful or not. You can't compare an array against a True/False condition. Also, this line If $IP = "" Then, shouldn't that be done before you try to open the UDP connection so you aren't wasting your time trying to open a connection to an empty IP address? BTW, if the server ever existed, and the DNS record hasn't expired, wouldn't that come back with an IP address even if the server is offline?

[Venix]

What exactly is this line "If $ServerStatus = $ServerStatus[0]=0 Then" supposed to be doing? UDPOpen returns an array regardless of whether it's successful or not. You can't compare an array against a True/False condition.

I wrote this because I believe it was one of the two returning values that I could have used in the event of an error at least this is what the help file mentioned unless I read it wrong. I could have used @error for this but chose not to at the time.

If $IP = "" Then, shouldn't that be done before you try to open the UDP connection so you aren't wasting your time trying to open a connection to an empty IP address?

Your right, because of the way I coded the script this line turned out useless and I should have added an exit before the end of the IF statement so it did not go on to make the connection and waste time. I did not see this at the time thank you for pointing that out.

BTW, if the server ever existed, and the DNS record hasn't expired, wouldn't that come back with an IP address even if the server is offline?

The game would be hosted with the use of some software and whilst the server software is closed I would not be able to access the port that the server is hosted on however I could still access the I.P itself, this would be the reason why I am not using ping because ping would not allow me to use ports In the command and therefore would always read online.

This is like a pop quiz lol.

Edited August 4, 2012 by Venix

[BrewManNH]

I wrote this because I believe it was one of the two returning values that I could have used in the event of an error at least this is what the help file mentioned unless I read it wrong. I could have used @error for this but chose not to at the time.

Use @error or "If $ServerStatus[0]=0 Then", that line isn't ever going to work the way you're trying to make it work.

Your right, because of the way I coded the script this line turned out useless and I should have added an exit before the end of the IF statement so it did not go on to make the connection and waste time. I did not see this at the time thank you for pointing that out.

My point was that if the server has ever been online, and the DNS records haven't expired, then this line "$IP = TCPNameToIP("#######.com")" is going to get the IP address of the server, even if it's offline. So, it's not a check to see if it's on or not.

[Venix]

Ok thanks for the feedback then .