AutoDiscovery not Updating Member List

General
1

I am attempting to use AutoDiscovery to find all other devices running the same program on the network. My code:

socAD = New clsAD // a class based upon AutoDiscovery socAD.Port = cADport // a constant port, same on every device socAD.Connect socAD.Register(ADGroupName) // a method that returns a group name, same on every device socAD.SendToSelf = False socAD.UpdateMemberList Dim aList() As String = socAD.GetMemberList
At that point aList.Ubound is always -1 even when I have successfully registered any number of devices with the same port and GroupName.

Now I put a little countdown before UpdateMemberList with 10 ticks in it, and, with two other devices on, GetMemberList will equal what it should be. My question, what’s a safe number of ticks to put in? If I have 30 devices on that network, I feel comfortable that 10 ticks wouldn’t do it, but I’m not going to know how many there are.

Any suggestions?

2

Querying all members of the group is not instantaneous.
It could easily take several seconds depending on a number of factors.

3

So how many ticks would you suggest to cover all the bases?

4

I’d create a multimode timer action that looks for members on a regular basis since there’s no “carved in stone” time rule for such a service.

5

Network packets can drop out - and since auto discovery is based on UDP there’s no guarantee that a packet will arrive.
So members might appear to come & go
There are events for member added & member left that you might want to monitor