Named pipe not found when using WCF netNamedPipeBinding

Question

I am the developer of a WCF service. My test clients work very well with it. But when it comes to real clients (using the same client proxy), it fails. The same WCF service works with netTcpBinding, this error occurs only with netNamedPipeBinding, even with ConcurrencyMode = ConcurrencyMode.Single

Here is the exception

There was no endpoint listening at net.pipe://localhost/MyService that could accept the message. This is often caused by an incorrect address or SOAP action. See InnerException, if present, for more details.

Server stack trace: at

System.ServiceModel.Channels.PipeConnectionInitiator.GetPipeName(Uri uri) at System.ServiceModel.Channels.NamedPipeConnectionPoolRegistry.NamedPipeConnectionPool.GetPoolKey(EndpointAddress address, Uri via) at System.ServiceModel.Channels.CommunicationPool`2.TakeConnection(EndpointAddress address, Uri via, TimeSpan timeout, TKey& key) at System.ServiceModel.Channels.ConnectionPoolHelper.EstablishConnection(TimeSpan timeout) at System.ServiceModel.Channels.ClientFramingDuplexSessionChannel.OnOpen(TimeSpan timeout) at System.ServiceModel.Channels.CommunicationObject.Open(TimeSpan timeout) at System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannel.OnOpen(TimeSpan timeout) at System.ServiceModel.Channels.CommunicationObject.Open(TimeSpan timeout) at System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannel.CallOnceManager.CallOnce(TimeSpan timeout, CallOnceManager cascade)
at System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannel.EnsureOpened(TimeSpan timeout) at System.ServiceModel.Channels.ServiceChannel.Call(String action, Boolean oneway, ProxyOperationRuntime operation, Object[] ins, Object[] outs, TimeSpan timeout) 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

Inner Exception

PipeException: "The pipe endpoint 'net.pipe://localhost/MyService' could not be found on your local machine. "

Answer 1

The endpoint used by your client has to match an endpoint exposed by your WCF service. This means that the address/binding/contract tuple of the specified client endpoint must exactly match the address/binding/contract tuple of an endpoint exposed by your WCF service. If you're using the app.config approach, make sure everything is spelled correctly in both the WCF service and client config files. If you are adding the endpoints programmatically, make sure you haven't misspelled anything in the code.