ASP.NET Integration

The NexNet.Asp package integrates NexNet servers into ASP.NET Core applications. It plugs into middleware pipelines, enabling dependency injection, authentication, and reverse proxy support via WebSocket and HttpSocket transports.

Advantages

Integrating through ASP.NET Core provides:

SSL/TLS termination at the reverse proxy, reducing cryptographic overhead on the application server
Centralized traffic management for security policies (rate limiting, IP allowlisting, header validation)
Consistent logging, monitoring, and metrics collection at the proxy level
An additional layer for DDoS mitigation and protection against common web vulnerabilities
Additional authentication with the connection prior to handing it to the NexNet server

Server Setup

var builder = WebApplication.CreateBuilder(args);

// Set up forwarded headers for proxy support
builder.Services.Configure<ForwardedHeadersOptions>(o =>
    o.ForwardedHeaders = ForwardedHeaders.All);

// Optionally add authentication (Bearer shown for simplicity)
builder.Services.AddAuthentication().AddBearerToken("BearerTokenScheme", ...);
builder.Services.AddAuthorization();

// Register the NexNet server in DI — enables constructor injection on ServerNexus
builder.Services.AddNexusServer<ServerNexus, ServerNexus.ClientProxy>();

var app = builder.Build();

// Enable headers and authentication middleware
app.UseForwardedHeaders();
app.UseAuthentication();
app.UseAuthorization();

// Start the NexNet server on an HTTP endpoint
// Use UseWebSocketNexusServerAsync for WebSocket transport instead
await app.UseHttpSocketNexusServerAsync<ServerNexus, ServerNexus.ClientProxy>(c =>
{
    c.Path = "/nexus";

    // Optionally enable ASP.NET authentication
    c.AspEnableAuthentication = true;
    c.AspAuthenticationScheme = "BearerTokenScheme";
}).StartAsync(app.Lifetime.ApplicationStopped);

Client Connection

// Use WebSocketClientConfig for WebSocket transport
var config = new HttpSocketClientConfig
{
    // Change to ws:// or wss:// for WebSocket connections
    Url = new Uri("http://127.0.0.1:9001/nexus"),
    // Optional authentication header
    AuthenticationHeader = new AuthenticationHeaderValue("Bearer", "SecretTokenValue")
};

var client = ClientNexus.CreateClient(config, new ClientNexus());
await client.ConnectAsync();

Reverse Proxy Configuration

Nginx

A configuration that supports both WebSocket upgrades and HttpSocket connections:

server {
    server_name example.com;
    location / {
        proxy_pass         http://backend;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_cache_bypass $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header   Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header   Connection $connection_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header   Host $host;
        proxy_set_header   X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header   X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    }
}