Thread: gethostbyname() won't work...

http://beej.us/guide/bgnet/
Probably find a working example in there.

Originally Posted by headbr

I am trying to connect to a server that I create. My server works fine if the client is in the same host because I use this in the client code:

Code:

serverAddr.sin_addr.s_addr = htonl(INADDR_ANY);

Now, when I try to connect to the server, being in a different host, I do this:

Code:

struct hostent *he;
..

char *servername = argv[1];
he = gethostbyname(servername);
memcpy(&serverAddr.sin_addr, he->h_addr_list[0], he->h_length);
	
// Connecting to the server
puts("1");
if (connect(mySock, (struct sockaddr *)&serverAddr, sizeof(serverAddr)) == -1) {
	puts("2");
        perror("connect");
        return EXIT_FAILURE;
}
puts("Connected to the server.");

The problem is that the "1" gets printed, and the "Connected..." message never appears.. So it gets stuck in connect. I am 100% sure it's something wrong with that gethostbyname, I must be using it wrong.

Can anyone enlighten me?

INADDR_ANY is not supposed to be a remote destination; its for listening sockets. using it on a client socket has the same effect like using 127.0.0.1, but has the side effect of making your code look weird. I'm not sure but it might also cause undefined behaviour since INADDR_ANY means 0.0.0.0, which would mean that all network interfaces are querried. So only use it on listening (server) sockets, which are supposed to listen on all interfaces.

The way you call gethostbyname() is perfectly fine. I even checked the code snippet here and it seems to work, so it might be something thats not on this snipped. Did you forget setting sin_family or sin_port on serverAddr?
By the way, when your connect() fails, perror() prints the error to stderr.. did you consider taking a look at that? Would be helpful if you posted the output

check the return value of gethostbyname

check that the he->h_addr_list[0] is not null before using it

print value of he->h_addr_list[0] to see what IP is selected for connecting