problem with .net windows service - windows

Question

have written a windows service. while the code worked for a simple form app, its not working in a windows service. here;s the code
Imports System.Text.RegularExpressions
Imports System.Net.Sockets
Imports System.Net
Imports System.IO
Public Class Service1
Public Shared Function CheckProxy(ByVal Proxy As String) As Boolean
Dim myWebRequest As HttpWebRequest = CType(WebRequest.Create("http://google.com"), HttpWebRequest)
myWebRequest.Proxy = New WebProxy(Proxy, False)
myWebRequest.Timeout = 10000
Try
Dim myWebResponse As HttpWebResponse = CType(myWebRequest.GetResponse(), HttpWebResponse)
Dim loResponseStream As StreamReader = New StreamReader(myWebResponse.GetResponseStream())
Return True
Catch ex As WebException
If (ex.Status = WebExceptionStatus.ConnectFailure) Then
End If
Return False
End Try
End Function
Protected Overrides Sub OnStart(ByVal args() As String)
System.IO.File.AppendAllText("C:\AuthorLog.txt",
"AuthorLogService has been started at " & Now.ToString())
MsgBox("1")
Timer1.Enabled = True
End Sub
Protected Overrides Sub OnStop()
' Add code here to perform any tear-down necessary to stop your service.
Timer1.Enabled = False
End Sub
Private Sub Timer1_Tick(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Timer1.Tick
MsgBox("2")
' Check if the the Event Log Exists
If Not Diagnostics.EventLog.SourceExists("Evoain Proxy Bot") Then
Diagnostics.EventLog.CreateEventSource("MyService", "Myservice Log") ' Create Log
End If
' Write to the Log
Diagnostics.EventLog.WriteEntry("MyService Log", "This is log on " & _
CStr(TimeOfDay), EventLogEntryType.Information)
Dim ProxyURLList As New Chilkat.CkString
Dim ProxyListPath As New Chilkat.CkString
Dim WorkingProxiesFileData As New Chilkat.CkString
Dim ProxyArray(10000000) As String
Dim event1 As New Chilkat.CkString
event1.setString("started")
event1.saveToFile("B:\serv.txt", "utf-8")
Dim ns As Integer = 0
'Read Configuration File
Dim sFileName As String
Dim srFileReader As System.IO.StreamReader
Dim sInputLine As String
sFileName = "config.ini"
srFileReader = System.IO.File.OpenText(sFileName)
sInputLine = srFileReader.ReadLine()
Dim temp As New Chilkat.CkString
Do Until sInputLine Is Nothing
temp.setString(sInputLine)
If temp.containsSubstring("proxyurllist=") = True Then
'Read Proxy-URL-List
ProxyURLList.setString(sInputLine)
If ProxyURLList.containsSubstring("proxyurllist=") = True Then
ProxyURLList.replaceFirstOccurance("proxyurllist=", "")
End If
ElseIf temp.containsSubstring("finalproxylistpath=") = True Then
'Read Proxy-List-Path
ProxyListPath.setString(sInputLine)
If ProxyListPath.containsSubstring("finalproxylistpath=") = True Then
ProxyListPath.replaceFirstOccurance("finalproxylistpath=", "")
End If
End If
sInputLine = srFileReader.ReadLine()
Loop
'*********Scrape URLs From Proxy-URL-List*********************
Dim ProxyURLFileData As New Chilkat.CkString
ProxyURLFileData.loadFile(ProxyURLList.getString, "utf-8")
Dim MultiLineString As String = ProxyURLFileData.getString
Dim ProxyURLArray() As String = MultiLineString.Split(Environment.NewLine.ToCharArray, System.StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries)
Dim i As Integer
For i = 0 To ProxyURLArray.Count - 1
'********Scrape Proxies From Proxy URLs***********************
Dim http As New Chilkat.Http()
Dim success As Boolean
' Any string unlocks the component for the 1st 30-days.
success = http.UnlockComponent("Anything for 30-day trial")
If (success <> True) Then
Exit Sub
End If
' Send the HTTP GET and return the content in a string.
Dim html As String
html = http.QuickGetStr(ProxyURLArray(i))
Dim links As MatchCollection
links = Regex.Matches(html, "[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}:[0-9]{1,5}")
For Each match As Match In links
Dim matchUrl As String = match.Groups(0).Value
ProxyArray(ns) = matchUrl
ns = ns + 1
Next
Next
'*************CHECK URLs*****************
Dim cnt As Integer = 0
For cnt = 0 To 1
Dim ProxyStatus As Boolean = CheckProxy("http://" + ProxyArray(cnt) + "/")
If ProxyStatus = True Then
WorkingProxiesFileData.append(Environment.NewLine)
WorkingProxiesFileData.append(ProxyArray(cnt))
End If
Next
WorkingProxiesFileData.saveToFile(ProxyListPath.getString, "utf-8")
End Sub
End Class
what are the basic thing i cannot do in a windows service? oh, and i am using the chilkat library too..
why can't i use all of my code in OnStart? i did so and the services stops just as it starts.
can i use something else except a timer and put an endless loop?

Answer 1

Running as a windows service typically won't let you see any popup boxes, etc since there's no UI (Unless you check the box to allow interaction with the desktop).
Try adding a Timer1.Start in your OnStart method. Then in your Timer1_Tick method, first thing stop the timer, then at the end start it back up, this way your Tick method won't fire while you're already doing work.

Answer 2

I realize I'm (very) late to this party, but what kind of timer are you using? A System.Windows.Forms.Timer is designed for use in a single threaded Windows Form and will not work in a Windows Service app. Try a System.Timers.Timer instead.