UDP socket, need help setting sending port

I'm using MSW XP Pro with Python 2.4 to develop but production will be Linux
with Python 2.3. (could upgrade to 2.4 if absolutely necessary) I can also
switch to Linux for development if necessary.

I am writing some python to replace proprietary software that talks to a
timeclock via UDP.

The timeclock extracts the sending port from the UDP header and uses that
for all response messages.

I cannot find out how to set the sending port in the header. Windows XP
appears to set an arbitrary port. I've been using ethereal to analyze
network traffic and it seems that if I can set the sending port, I should be
OK.

I have been googling various combinations of "python udp ..." for the last
two hours and have not found anything that addresses how to set the sending
port. I'm guessing that this may be in setsockopt but don't see any
parameters that "click".

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Fred Sells
fred at adventistcare dotttttt org


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re: UDP socket, need help setting sending port

Fred,

It is quite possible I've misunderstood the problem :-) but have
you tried anything like

import socket
tc_local_port = 9999
tc_remote_port = 9999
outgoing_if = "172.16.1.2" # say
remote_tc_host = "172.16.1.3" # say
# udp is the default for DGRAM
tc_sock = socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_DGRAM)
tc_sock.bind((outgoing_if, tc_local_port))
tc_sock.connect((remote_tc_host, tc_remote_port))

If you send data with tc_sock, it should have a source port of
tc_local_port.
So, to set the source port, call bind. You should do that before
calling connect, since
calling connect on an unbound socket has the side effect of
assigning an ephemeral port to the socket.
Hope that was of some help to you.

All the best,

Keir.

re: UDP socket, need help setting sending port

A few trivial corrections, to my own post :-(
tc_sock = socket(socket...
should be
tc_sock = socket.socket(socket...
of course

and, (while I'm here) when I stated that calling connect on an
unbound socket caused
a ephemeral port to be assigned, I should have written "calling connect
on an unbound _UDP_ socket, etc. "

Cheers,

Keir.

re: UDP socket, need help setting sending port

Sells, Fred wrote:[color=blue]
> I'm using MSW XP Pro with Python 2.4 to develop but production will be Linux
> with Python 2.3. (could upgrade to 2.4 if absolutely necessary) I can also
> switch to Linux for development if necessary.
>
> I am writing some python to replace proprietary software that talks to a
> timeclock via UDP.
>
> The timeclock extracts the sending port from the UDP header and uses that
> for all response messages.
>
> I cannot find out how to set the sending port in the header. Windows XP
> appears to set an arbitrary port. I've been using ethereal to analyze
> network traffic and it seems that if I can set the sending port, I should be
> OK.
>
> I have been googling various combinations of "python udp ..." for the last
> two hours and have not found anything that addresses how to set the sending
> port. I'm guessing that this may be in setsockopt but don't see any
> parameters that "click".[/color]


Try binding the address ('',0) which means any address, any port
on this box. Then get the bound address with getsockname(). Below
is a copy of an interactive try-out...


[color=blue][color=green][color=darkred]
>>> import socket
>>> s = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_DGRAM)
>>> s.bind(('',0))
>>> s[/color][/color][/color]
<socket._socketobject object at 0xb7d9ee0c>[color=blue][color=green][color=darkred]
>>> s.getsockname()[/color][/color][/color]
('0.0.0.0', 32775)[color=blue][color=green][color=darkred]
>>>[/color][/color][/color]

So in this case, port 32775 was chosen to bind to.

Steve