ServerSocket Class Methods

The java.net.ServerSocket class is used by server applications to obtain a port and listen for client requests
The ServerSocket class has four constructors:

SN	Methods with Description
1	public ServerSocket(int port) throws IOException Attempts to create a server socket bound to the specified port. An exception occurs if the port is already bound by another application.
2	public ServerSocket(int port, int backlog) throws IOException Similar to the previous constructor, the backlog parameter specifies how many incoming clients to store in a wait queue.
3	public ServerSocket(int port, int backlog, InetAddress address) throws IOException Similar to the previous constructor, the InetAddress parameter specifies the local IP address to bind to. The InetAddress is used for servers that may have multiple IP addresses, allowing the server to specify which of its IP addresses to accept client requests on
4	public ServerSocket() throws IOException Creates an unbound server socket. When using this constructor, use the bind() method when you are ready to bind the server socket

If the ServerSocket constructor does not throw an exception, it means that your application has successfully bound to the specified port and is ready for client requests.
Here are some of the common methods of the ServerSocket class:

SN	Methods with Description
1	public int getLocalPort() Returns the port that the server socket is listening on. This method is useful if you passed in 0 as the port number in a constructor and let the server find a port for you.
2	public Socket accept() throws IOException Waits for an incoming client. This method blocks until either a client connects to the server on the specified port or the socket times out, assuming that the time-out value has been set using the setSoTimeout() method. Otherwise, this method blocks indefinitely
3	public void setSoTimeout(int timeout) Sets the time-out value for how long the server socket waits for a client during the accept().
4	public void bind(SocketAddress host, int backlog) Binds the socket to the specified server and port in the SocketAddress object. Use this method if you instantiated the ServerSocket using the no-argument constructor.

When the ServerSocket invokes accept(), the method does not return until a client connects. After a client does connect, the ServerSocket creates a new Socket on an unspecified port and returns a reference to this new Socket. A TCP connection now exists between the client and server, and communication can begin.