java.net.SocketException: Connection reset

Question

I am getting the following error trying to read from a socket. I'm doing a readInt() on that InputStream, and I am getting this error. Perusing the documentation this suggests that the client part of the connection closed the connection. In this scenario, I am the server.

I have access to the client log files and it is not closing the connection, and in fact its log files suggest I am closing the connection. So does anybody have an idea why this is happening? What else to check for? Does this arise when there are local resources that are perhaps reaching thresholds?

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I do note that I have the following line:

socket.setSoTimeout(10000);

just prior to the readInt(). There is a reason for this (long story), but just curious, are there circumstances under which this might lead to the indicated error? I have the server running in my IDE, and I happened to leave my IDE stuck on a breakpoint, and I then noticed the exact same errors begin appearing in my own logs in my IDE.

Anyway, just mentioning it, hopefully not a red herring. :-(

Answer 1

There are several possible causes.

1. The other end has deliberately reset the connection, in a way which I will not document here. It is rare, and generally incorrect, for application software to do this, but it is not unknown for commercial software.

2. More commonly, it is caused by writing to a connection that the other end has already closed normally. In other words an application protocol error.

3. It can also be caused by closing a socket when there is unread data in the socket receive buffer.

4. In Windows, 'software caused connection abort', which is not the same as 'connection reset', is caused by network problems sending from your end. There's a Microsoft knowledge base article about this.