WCF TCP Binding in a self hosted WinForms App

Question

I have decided to do net.tcp binding in my self hosted wcf app (with transport level encryption).

While I had quite an interesting time in getting info on the subject of making a self hosted wcf app work, my current working solution does not implicitly specify binding, so I guess it defaults to BasicHttp.

I am unsure of how to "add/change" the binding to net.tcp and transport level encryption ? I am also curious in "testing" my tcp secured connection. What would be used to run some test security scenarios?

Working Code: No implicit binding specified...

'create URI
        Dim myServiceAddress As New Uri("http://" & LocalIpAddress & ":" & tcp_port & "/" & servicename)

        Dim myservicehost As New ServiceHost(GetType(plutocomm), myServiceAddress)

        ' Enable metadata publishing.
        Dim smb As New ServiceMetadataBehavior()
        smb.HttpGetEnabled = True
        smb.MetadataExporter.PolicyVersion = PolicyVersion.Policy15
        myservicehost.Description.Behaviors.Add(smb)

        myservicehost.Open()

UPDATE

An Update on this... really starting to scratch my head here..

I have now:

Changed binding to tcp Created, installed and referenced self signed certificate trace shows no helpfull information...

Here's my new code:

 Dim myServiceAddress As New Uri("net.tcp://" & localIpAddress & ":" & tcp_port & "/" & servicename)

        Dim myservicehost As New ServiceHost(GetType(plutocomm))
        'create binding
        Dim myNetTcpBinding = New NetTcpBinding()
        myNetTcpBinding.Security.Mode = SecurityMode.Transport
        myNetTcpBinding.Security.Transport.ClientCredentialType = TcpClientCredentialType.None



        ' Enable metadata publishing.
        Dim smb As New ServiceMetadataBehavior()
        smb.HttpGetEnabled = False
        smb.MetadataExporter.PolicyVersion = PolicyVersion.Policy15
        myservicehost.Description.Behaviors.Add(smb)

        myservicehost.AddServiceEndpoint(GetType(Iplutocomm), myNetTcpBinding, myServiceAddress)
        myservicehost.Credentials.ServiceCertificate.SetCertificate(StoreLocation.LocalMachine, StoreName.My, X509FindType.FindBySubjectName, "louisvantonder")


        myservicehost.Open()

Heres my trace with a "warning" when trying to reference it, no real info on why...?

<E2ETraceEvent xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/2004/06/E2ETraceEvent"><System xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/2004/06/windows/eventlog/system"><EventID>262171</EventID><Type>3</Type><SubType Name="Warning">0</SubType><Level>4</Level><TimeCreated SystemTime="2013-05-28T01:16:53.0868677Z" /><Source Name="System.ServiceModel" /><Correlation ActivityID="{a696dcda-b24a-4838-9f23-cd0d67690af7}" /><Execution ProcessName="pluto" ProcessID="8472" ThreadID="3" /><Channel /><Computer>LOUISVANTONDER</Computer></System><ApplicationData><TraceData><DataItem><TraceRecord xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/2004/10/E2ETraceEvent/TraceRecord" Severity="Warning"><TraceIdentifier>http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-ZA/library/System.ServiceModel.Channels.SocketConnectionAbort.aspx</TraceIdentifier><Description>SocketConnection aborted</Description><AppDomain>pluto.exe</AppDomain><Source>System.ServiceModel.Channels.SocketConnection/37489757</Source></TraceRecord></DataItem></TraceData></ApplicationData></E2ETraceEvent>

I still cant get a workable solution... here is my current code

Answer 1

You didn't specify a binding in your original code and you specified a protocol of http (via your address), which is why you're getting BasicHttpBinding (which is the default for http).

The following code snippet should get you going in the right direction:

Dim myServiceAddress As New Uri("net.tcp://" & LocalIpAddress & ":" & tcp_port & "/" & servicename)

Dim myservicehost As New ServiceHost(GetType(plutocomm), myServiceAddress)

Note the net.tcp protocol in the address. In theory, that should be sufficient to get you the default NetTCPBinding. If you want to explicitly define it, here's one way:

Create a NetTCP endpoint and add it to your ServiceHost:

Dim myservicehost As New ServiceHost(GetType(plutocomm))

Note that you're not creating the endpoint yet. The following code will create the endpoint for your sevice:

Dim myNetTcpBinding = New NetTcpBinding()
myNetTcpBinding.Security.Mode = SecurityMode.Transport
myNetTcpBinding.Security.Transport.ClientCredentialType = TcpClientCredentialType.Certificate
myservicehost.AddServiceEndpoint(typeof(plutocomm), myNetTcpBinding, myServiceAddress)

Note that SecurityMode.Transport is the default for NetTcpBinding, so you don't need to explicitly set it. If you're using certificate you'll probably need to tell the binding where to find the certificate (take a look at the MSDN Example).

This is just one of several ways you can set up the binding (you can also do it in the config file, for example).

The key here is that WCF (with version 4 and later) has default settings that will come into play unless you explicitly specify something else.