WCF showing timeout error - wcf

Question

I just created a WCF service library. I created a test function and i invoked the test function from the WCF test client. I had put a break point in the code. The control reaches the break point and stops there. Now i let the control to stay at the break point for sometime and in about i minute the get the following error message
"Failed to invoke the service. Possible causes: The service is offline or inaccessible; the client-side configuration does not match the proxy; the existing proxy is invalid. Refer to the stack trace for more detail. You can try to recover by starting a new proxy, restoring to default configuration, or refreshing the service."
Error Details:
The request channel timed out while waiting for a reply after 00:00:59.9843750. Increase the timeout value passed to the call to Request or increase the SendTimeout value on the Binding. The time allotted to this operation may have been a portion of a longer timeout.
Server stack trace:
at System.ServiceModel.Channels.RequestChannel.Request(Message message, TimeSpan timeout)
at System.ServiceModel.Channels.ClientReliableChannelBinder1.RequestClientReliableChannelBinder1.OnRequest(TRequestChannel channel, Message message, TimeSpan timeout, MaskingMode maskingMode)
at System.ServiceModel.Channels.ClientReliableChannelBinder1.Request(Message message, TimeSpan timeout, MaskingMode maskingMode)
at System.ServiceModel.Channels.ClientReliableChannelBinder1.Request(Message message, TimeSpan timeout)
at System.ServiceModel.Security.SecuritySessionClientSettings`1.SecurityRequestSessionChannel.Request(Message message, TimeSpan timeout)
at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.RequestChannelBinder.Request(Message message, TimeSpan timeout)
at System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannel.Call(String action, Boolean oneway, ProxyOperationRuntime operation, Object[] ins, Object[] outs, TimeSpan timeout)
at System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannel.Call(String action, Boolean oneway, ProxyOperationRuntime operation, Object[] ins, Object[] outs)
at System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannelProxy.InvokeService(IMethodCallMessage methodCall, ProxyOperationRuntime operation)
at System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannelProxy.Invoke(IMessage message)
Exception rethrown at [0]:
at System.Runtime.Remoting.Proxies.RealProxy.HandleReturnMessage(IMessage reqMsg, IMessage retMsg)
at System.Runtime.Remoting.Proxies.RealProxy.PrivateInvoke(MessageData& msgData, Int32 type)
at ITrustmarkService.StartRobotProcess()
at TrustmarkServiceClient.StartRobotProcess()
Any idea what is causing this?

Answer 1

This is a sample WCF client config from MSDN:
<bindings>
<wsHttpBinding>
<binding name="WSHttpBinding_ISampleService" closeTimeout="00:01:00"
openTimeout="00:01:00" receiveTimeout="00:01:00" sendTimeout="00:01:00"
bypassProxyOnLocal="false" transactionFlow="false" hostNameComparisonMode="StrongWildcard"
maxBufferPoolSize="524288" maxReceivedMessageSize="65536"
messageEncoding="Text" textEncoding="utf-8" useDefaultWebProxy="true"
allowCookies="false">
<readerQuotas maxDepth="32" maxStringContentLength="8192" maxArrayLength="16384"
maxBytesPerRead="4096" maxNameTableCharCount="16384" />
<reliableSession ordered="true" inactivityTimeout="00:10:00"
enabled="false" />
<security mode="Message">
<transport clientCredentialType="None" proxyCredentialType="None"
realm="" />
<message clientCredentialType="Windows" negotiateServiceCredential="true"
algorithmSuite="Default" establishSecurityContext="true" />
</security>
</binding>
</wsHttpBinding>
</bindings>
you should set receiveTimeout and sendtimout to appropriated value, you can see similar configuration in a config file of your test.

Answer 2

Yes. By default WCF Service has a response timeout for 1 minute configured. That means clients can wait up to a minute and if they don't get a response in that time, they can assume failed/no response.
In your case, you are holding WCF service using a breakpoint to respond to client's request. And after waiting for a minute, client times out and doesn't wait anymore.
You can increase this timeout from WCF service's .config file.