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Q237688: HOWTO: Using getsockopt() and setsockopt() in Visual Basic

Article: Q237688
Product(s): Microsoft Visual Basic for Windows
Version(s): 5.0
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): kbnetwork kbAPI kbCtrl kbSDKPlatform kbSDKWin32 kbVBp kbVBp500 kbWinsock kbDSupport kbG
Last Modified: 12-JAN-2001

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The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft Visual Basic Learning Edition for Windows, version 5.0 
- Microsoft Visual Basic Professional Edition for Windows, version 5.0 
- Microsoft Visual Basic Enterprise Edition for Windows, version 5.0 
- Microsoft Win32 Application Programming Interface (API) 
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SUMMARY
=======

This article demonstrates how to use the Windows Sockets (Winsock) getsockopt
and setsockopt functions in Visual Basic to read and set options on a socket. A
specific parameter that is valid for the socket's protocol type can be read or
set by passing a socket handle to these functions along with an option level and
option name. Either a socket obtained by way of the Winsock Socket function or
even the Winsock Control's socket handle (exposed by way of the SocketHandle
property) can be used (as shown here).

MORE INFORMATION
================

As a general rule, when calling C functions in Visual Basic, the relevant
constants, structures (types), and functional prototypes must be redefined or
declared. This is also the case with the Winsock API. This example shows how to
set up the functions and constants, read all the available socket options, and
then set the two relevant socket options for a specific protocol.

The sample application contains two buttons, Command1 and Command2, which read
and set values, respectively. The sample also contains a Winsock Control,
Winsock1, to supply a socket handle. Please note that the Winsock Control must
be in a bind state to be able to set the options on the socket. In other words,
the Winsock1.SocketHandle property must have a value greater than zero. That is
handled in the Form_Load event.

Some socket options require structures to be passed to get or set the information
for a socket. SO_LINGER is one such option and is illustrated in the sample code
that follows.

If an option is not supported for a specific socket or type of socket, the error
10042 (WSAENOPROTOOPT) is returned.

  Option Explicit

  ' Error returned by Winsock API.
  Const SOCKET_ERROR = -1

  ' Level number for (get/set)sockopt() to apply to socket itself.
  Const SOL_SOCKET = 65535      ' Options for socket level.
  Const IPPROTO_TCP = 6         ' Protocol constant for TCP.

  ' option flags per socket
  Const SO_DEBUG = &H1&         ' Turn on debugging info recording
  Const SO_ACCEPTCONN = &H2&    ' Socket has had listen() - READ-ONLY.
  Const SO_REUSEADDR = &H4&     ' Allow local address reuse.
  Const SO_KEEPALIVE = &H8&     ' Keep connections alive.
  Const SO_DONTROUTE = &H10&    ' Just use interface addresses.
  Const SO_BROADCAST = &H20&    ' Permit sending of broadcast msgs.
  Const SO_USELOOPBACK = &H40&  ' Bypass hardware when possible.
  Const SO_LINGER = &H80&       ' Linger on close if data present.
  Const SO_OOBINLINE = &H100&   ' Leave received OOB data in line.

  Const SO_DONTLINGER = Not SO_LINGER
  Const SO_EXCLUSIVEADDRUSE = Not SO_REUSEADDR ' Disallow local address reuse.

  ' Additional options.
  Const SO_SNDBUF = &H1001&     ' Send buffer size.
  Const SO_RCVBUF = &H1002&     ' Receive buffer size.
  Const SO_ERROR = &H1007&      ' Get error status and clear.
  Const SO_TYPE = &H1008&       ' Get socket type - READ-ONLY.

  ' TCP Options
  Const TCP_NODELAY = &H1&      ' Turn off Nagel Algorithm.

  ' linger structure
  Private Type LINGER_STRUCT
    l_onoff As Integer          ' Is linger on or off?
    l_linger As Integer         ' Linger timeout in seconds.
  End Type
   
  ' Winsock API declares
  Private Declare Function setsockopt Lib "wsock32.dll" (ByVal s As Long, ByVal level As Long, ByVal optname As Long, optval As Any, ByVal optlen As Long) As Long
  Private Declare Function getsockopt Lib "wsock32.dll" (ByVal s As Long, ByVal level As Long, ByVal optname As Long, optval As Any, optlen As Long) As Long

  Private Sub Command1_Click()
    ' Read all the options and present in a message box.
    Dim socket As Long
    
    socket = Winsock1.SocketHandle
    
    If socket = 0 Then
      MsgBox "No Socket"
    Else
      MsgBox "Socket Options:" & vbCrLf & _
             "    SO_DEBUG: " & CStr(GetSocketOption(socket, SOL_SOCKET, SO_DEBUG)) & vbCrLf & _
             "    SO_ACCEPTCONN: " & CStr(GetSocketOption(socket, SOL_SOCKET, SO_ACCEPTCONN)) & vbCrLf & _
             "    SO_REUSEADDR: " & CStr(GetSocketOption(socket, SOL_SOCKET, SO_REUSEADDR)) & vbCrLf & _
             "    SO_KEEPALIVE: " & CStr(GetSocketOption(socket, SOL_SOCKET, SO_KEEPALIVE)) & vbCrLf & _
             "    SO_DONTROUTE: " & CStr(GetSocketOption(socket, SOL_SOCKET, SO_DONTROUTE)) & vbCrLf & _
             "    SO_BROADCAST: " & CStr(GetSocketOption(socket, SOL_SOCKET, SO_BROADCAST)) & vbCrLf & _
             "    SO_USELOOPBACK: " & CStr(GetSocketOption(socket, SOL_SOCKET, SO_USELOOPBACK)) & vbCrLf & _
             "    SO_LINGER: " & CStr(GetSocketOption(socket, SOL_SOCKET, SO_LINGER)) & vbCrLf & _
             "    SO_OOBINLINE: " & CStr(GetSocketOption(socket, SOL_SOCKET, SO_OOBINLINE)) & vbCrLf & _
             "    SO_DONTLINGER: " & CStr(GetSocketOption(socket, SOL_SOCKET, SO_DONTLINGER)) & vbCrLf & _
             "    SO_EXCLUSIVEADDRUSE: " & CStr(GetSocketOption(socket, SOL_SOCKET, SO_EXCLUSIVEADDRUSE)) & vbCrLf & _
             "    SO_SNDBUF: " & CStr(GetSocketOption(socket, SOL_SOCKET, SO_SNDBUF)) & vbCrLf & _
             "    SO_RCVBUF: " & CStr(GetSocketOption(socket, SOL_SOCKET, SO_RCVBUF)) & vbCrLf & _
             "    SO_ERROR: " & CStr(GetSocketOption(socket, SOL_SOCKET, SO_ERROR)) & vbCrLf & _
             "    SO_TYPE: " & CStr(GetSocketOption(socket, SOL_SOCKET, SO_TYPE)) & vbCrLf & vbCrLf & _
             "TCP Options:" & vbCrLf & _
             "    TCP_NODELAY: " & CStr(GetSocketOption(socket, IPPROTO_TCP, TCP_NODELAY))
      End If
  End Sub
  Private Sub Command2_Click()
    Dim lResult As Long     ' Results of 1st option.
    Dim lResult2 As Long    ' Results of 2nd option.
    Dim linger As LINGER_STRUCT
    
    If (Winsock1.Protocol = sckTCPProtocol) Then
      ' Change two options valid for TCP Sockets.
      lResult = setsockopt(Winsock1.SocketHandle, IPPROTO_TCP, TCP_NODELAY, 1, 4)
      If (lResult = SOCKET_ERROR) Then
        MsgBox "Error setting TCP_NODELAY option: " & CStr(Err.LastDllError)
      End If
      
      ' Set up the linger structure.
      linger.l_onoff = 1
      linger.l_linger = 5
      lResult2 = setsockopt(Winsock1.SocketHandle, SOL_SOCKET, SO_LINGER, linger, LenB(linger))
      If (lResult2 = SOCKET_ERROR) Then
        MsgBox "Error setting SO_LINGER option: " & CStr(Err.LastDllError)
      End If
    Else
      ' Change two options valid for UDP sockets.
      lResult = setsockopt(Winsock1.SocketHandle, SOL_SOCKET, SO_REUSEADDR, 1, 4)
      If (lResult = SOCKET_ERROR) Then
        MsgBox "Error setting SO_REUSEADDR option: " & CStr(Err.LastDllError)
      End If

      lResult2 = setsockopt(Winsock1.SocketHandle, SOL_SOCKET, SO_BROADCAST, 0, 4)
      If (lResult2 = SOCKET_ERROR) Then
        MsgBox "Error setting SO_BROADCAST option: " & CStr(Err.LastDllError)
      End If
    End If
    
    If (lResult = 0) And (lResult2 = 0) Then
      MsgBox "Options Set"
    End If
  End Sub
  Public Function GetSocketOption(lSocket As Long, lLevel As Long, lOption As Long) As Long
    Dim lResult As Long       ' Result of API call.
    Dim lBuffer As Long       ' Buffer to get value into.
    Dim lBufferLen As Long    ' len of buffer.
    Dim linger As LINGER_STRUCT
    
    ' Linger requires a structure so we will get that option differently.
    If (lOption <> SO_LINGER) And (lOption <> SO_DONTLINGER) Then
      lBufferLen = LenB(lBuffer)
      lResult = getsockopt(lSocket, lLevel, lOption, lBuffer, lBufferLen)
    Else
      lBufferLen = LenB(linger)
      lResult = getsockopt(lSocket, lLevel, lOption, linger, lBufferLen)
      lBuffer = linger.l_onoff
    End If
    
    If (lResult = SOCKET_ERROR) Then
      GetSocketOption = Err.LastDllError
    Else
      GetSocketOption = lBuffer
    End If
  End Function
  Private Sub Form_Load()
    Winsock1.Bind 8377      ' Set up socket enough to get nonzero socket. handle
  End Sub

REFERENCES
==========

- Platform SDK documentation for Windows Sockets Version 2 API

- Visual Basic documentation for Visual Basic and the Winsock Control

For additional information, click the article number below to view the article in
the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

  Q110219 LONG: How to Call Windows API from VB 3.0--General Guidelines

  Q106553 HOWTO: Write C DLLs and Call Them from Visual Basic

Additional query words:

======================================================================
Keywords          : kbnetwork kbAPI kbCtrl kbSDKPlatform kbSDKWin32 kbVBp kbVBp500 kbWinsock kbDSupport kbGrpDSNet 
Technology        : kbVBSearch kbAudDeveloper kbZNotKeyword6 kbZNotKeyword2 kbVB500Search kbVB500 kbWin32sSearch kbWin32API
Version           : :5.0
Issue type        : kbhowto

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