Exception in thread “main” java.net.ConnectException: Connection refused: connect Socket Programming Java

Question

I recently learn about Socket Programming between client and server. So I thought of doing an exercise of connecting both client and server. However, I have encountered this error message when I try to run the code: Exception in thread "main" java.net.ConnectException: Connection refused: connect

This is my client class code:

public class clientpart {
    public static void main(String[]args) throws UnknownHostException, IOException {
        Scanner input = new Scanner(System.in);
        int port = 8080;
        String host=null;
        String answer; String sendMessage; String receivedMessage;
        InetAddress address = InetAddress.getByName(host);
        Socket socket= new Socket(address,port);

        OutputStream os = socket.getOutputStream();
        OutputStreamWriter osw = new OutputStreamWriter(os);
        BufferedWriter bw = new BufferedWriter(osw);

        System.out.println("Please answered the following question: ");
        System.out.println("What is the subject code for Socket Programming?");
        answer = input.nextLine();

        sendMessage = answer;
        bw.write(sendMessage);
        bw.newLine();
        bw.flush();
        System.out.println("Message sent to server: "+sendMessage);

        InputStream is = socket.getInputStream();
        InputStreamReader isr = new InputStreamReader(is);
        BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(isr);
        receivedMessage = br.readLine();
        System.out.println("Message received from server : " + receivedMessage);
    }
}

This is my server code:

public class serverpart {
    public static Socket socket;
    public static void main(String[]args) throws IOException {
        int port = 8080;
        String answer; String returnedMessage; String reply;
        ServerSocket server = new ServerSocket(port);
        System.out.println("Server start at port "+port+".");

        while(true)
        {
            socket = server.accept();
            InputStream is = socket.getInputStream();
            InputStreamReader isr = new InputStreamReader(is);
            BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(isr);
            answer = br.readLine();
            System.out.println("Message sent from client: " + answer);

            if("NET 3202".equals(answer) || "net 3202".equals(answer) || "NET3202".equals(answer) || "net3202".equals(answer)){
                reply = "Correct!";
                returnedMessage = reply;
            }
            else{
                reply = "Wrong!";
                returnedMessage = reply;
            }

            OutputStream os = socket.getOutputStream();
            OutputStreamWriter osw = new OutputStreamWriter(os);
            BufferedWriter bw = new BufferedWriter(osw);
            bw.write(returnedMessage);
            bw.newLine();
            System.out.println("Message replied to client: "+returnedMessage);
            bw.flush();
        }
    }
}

The full error message is:

Exception in thread "main" java.net.ConnectException: Connection refused: connect
at java.net.DualStackPlainSocketImpl.connect0(Native Method)
at java.net.DualStackPlainSocketImpl.socketConnect(DualStackPlainSocketImpl.java:79)
at java.net.AbstractPlainSocketImpl.doConnect(AbstractPlainSocketImpl.java:350)
at java.net.AbstractPlainSocketImpl.connectToAddress(AbstractPlainSocketImpl.java:206)
at java.net.AbstractPlainSocketImpl.connect(AbstractPlainSocketImpl.java:188)
at java.net.PlainSocketImpl.connect(PlainSocketImpl.java:172)
at java.net.SocksSocketImpl.connect(SocksSocketImpl.java:392)
at java.net.Socket.connect(Socket.java:589)
at java.net.Socket.connect(Socket.java:538)
at java.net.Socket.<init>(Socket.java:434)
at java.net.Socket.<init>(Socket.java:244)
at clientpart.main(clientpart.java:13)
C:\Users\PeiErn\AppData\Local\NetBeans\Cache\8.1\executor-snippets\run.xml:53: Java returned: 1
BUILD FAILED (total time: 1 second)

I hope someone can help me, thanks.

Answer 1

There are 2 issues in your program:

1. You use the port 80 which is part of the well-known ports or system ports (0 to 1023), so you need to launch your server with the admin rights or change it for 8080 for example.
2. You forgot to call bw.newLine() after each bw.write(sendMessage) such that it waits for ever since on the other side you call br.readLine() which means that it waits for an entire line while you don't send the end of line characters.

Change your code for this:

Server part:

public class serverpart {
    public static Socket socket;
    public static void main(String[]args) throws IOException {
        int port = 8080;
        ...
            BufferedWriter bw = new BufferedWriter(osw);
            bw.write(returnedMessage);
            bw.newLine();
            ...

Output:

Server start at port 8080.
Accepted
Message sent from client: net3202
Message replied to client: Correct!

Client part:

public class clientpart {
    public static void main(String[]args) throws IOException {
        Scanner input = new Scanner(System.in);
        int port = 8080;
        ...
        bw.write(sendMessage);
        bw.newLine();
        bw.flush();
        ...

Output:

Please answered the following question: 
What is the subject code for Socket Programming?
net3202
Message sent to server: net3202
Message received from server : Correct!