Need help finding Fast Way to send a message to multiple sockets in a list object?

Im making a chat application, i already finished it but sometimes the messages are REALLY delayed for some clients. I have two methods, one called checkForMessages that checks the message on the sockets, and sendMessages which sendsthe message to all sockets. I have a list object of sockets that keeps trakc of the connections.

Here is my code for both methods
(this is the server code btw)

Code:

public void checkForMessages(List<Socket> s)
        {
            Byte[] byteBuffer = new Byte[1024];
            bool result;
            for (int i = 0; i < s.Count; ++i)
            {
                result = s[i].Poll(1000, SelectMode.SelectRead);
                if (result)
                {
                    Array.Clear(byteBuffer, 0, byteBuffer.Length);
                    s[i].Receive(byteBuffer);
                    sendMessages(s,byteBuffer);

                }
            }
        }



public void sendMessages(List<Socket> s,Byte[] bufferMessage)
        {
            for (int i = 0; i < s.Count; ++i)
            {
                    Socket sendMessage = s[i];
                    sendMessage.Send(bufferMessage);
            }



        }

Is there any other way i can send/recieve messages without it being so delayed sometimes?!

Your sending could be optimized to do it in parallel:

Code:

    public void sendMessages(List<Socket> s, Byte[] bufferMessage)
    {
      s.AsParallel().ForAll( socket => socket.Send(bufferMessage) );
    }

However, this will probably not be your delay. Check your receiving function. It will poll each socket for a second. Add 10 chatters and your program takes 10 seconds to recognize that one has sent something even before replicating it to it's clients.

Just guessing here, but the delay could be from blocking on receive. My guess is based on you using Send rather than BeginSend.

Originally Posted by nvoigt

Your sending could be optimized to do it in parallel:

Code:

    public void sendMessages(List<Socket> s, Byte[] bufferMessage)
    {
      s.AsParallel().ForAll( socket => socket.Send(bufferMessage) );
    }

However, this will probably not be your delay. Check your receiving function. It will poll each socket for a second. Add 10 chatters and your program takes 10 seconds to recognize that one has sent something even before replicating it to it's clients.

Yeah its definitely my receive code, What would be a solution for this?

Originally Posted by theoobe

Just guessing here, but the delay could be from blocking on receive. My guess is based on you using Send rather than BeginSend.

im using a non blocking method by polling the socket so that cant be it

Well, you told your "Poll" to wait for 1000. If that's too long, you could try 100 or 10 or 1 I guess. If you feel adventurous, you could try to receive in parallel, too.

Originally Posted by nvoigt

Well, you told your "Poll" to wait for 1000. If that's too long, you could try 100 or 10 or 1 I guess. If you feel adventurous, you could try to receive in parallel, too.

okay i reduced the time but i still get a delay, that's odd, hmmm,the delay is random, sometimes it is delayed other times it isn't. Could it be because in my receive code i'm receiving a message then sending it to all clients, then receiving another message then sending it, could that slow it down? Could i just add all the received messages in a queue and then call send after all the messages are received? and send the contents of the queue out to the clients?

How many clients do you have, how long is your message and how long is the delay? A delay of a few seconds would be normal for simple code if you have a lot of clients (>1000) or a big message (some megabytes) or very short delays in debug mode (< 1s). If you are sending "hello world" between 10 clients, no delay should be visible.

Originally Posted by nvoigt

How many clients do you have, how long is your message and how long is the delay? A delay of a few seconds would be normal for simple code if you have a lot of clients (>1000) or a big message (some megabytes) or very short delays in debug mode (< 1s). If you are sending "hello world" between 10 clients, no delay should be visible.

Well even with one client its delayed by a few seconds, sometimes its like a 10 second delay and thats just for one client connected, the delay is so random, its definitely in my recieve code, should i do what i said in my post about the queue? would that speed it up?

If it's actually in the seconds-range, maybe writing logs or debugging will help. Find out what happens in the time of the delay. How do you know when to call your receive function by the way? Is that some sort of timer or just an endless loop?

Originally Posted by nvoigt

If it's actually in the seconds-range, maybe writing logs or debugging will help. Find out what happens in the time of the delay. How do you know when to call your receive function by the way? Is that some sort of timer or just an endless loop?

its in an endless loop, here is the loop, this loop resides in the main function, the previous lines before it just instantiate the class and its attributes, here is the code:
Client Queue is a list object that holds the connections

Code:

while (true)
                {
                    server.checkForDisconnections(server.ClientQueue);
                    server.checkForMessages(server.ClientQueue);
                    server.PollResult = server.IncomingConnection.Poll(100000, SelectMode.SelectRead);
                    if (server.PollResult)
                    {
                        server.AcceptedConnection = server.IncomingConnection.Accept();
                        server.ClientQueue.Add(server.AcceptedConnection);
                        Console.WriteLine("A client has connected");
                    }

                }

What do you think that 100000 in your Poll function call does?

Originally Posted by nvoigt

What do you think that 100000 in your Poll function call does?

It waits for a socket to be accepted without the .accepted() call blocking it, i lowered the time for it to literally 1 and i was getting the delay still, i use the poll as a non blocking way so accept doesn't block the entire program

Originally Posted by nvoigt

What do you think that 100000 in your Poll function call does?

Do you want me to zip up the client and server programs in two seperate zip files and you can run them? and see what im talking about in terms of the "delay"

I'd rather help you find it, so can can solve your problems on your own in the future

Have you tried to track down the delay? Which function takes that long? Have you printed some logs or measured the time of the functions?