WCF Error - unexpected response: (400) Bad Request - asp.net

Question

I'm having trouble finding an answer for this problem. Most similar posts lean seem to be fixed by adjusting some of the maximum size settings in the web.config file. However, none of those suggestions have fixed my issue.
To give a little more background, I'm porting a asmx web service, to a WCF web service hosted in Windows Azure. This problem came up during testing. If I pass a small number of transactions to my webservice in a single call, it tends to work just fine. This error come up though when my transaction size gets around 50-60 (transactions). Serialized to xml, the file size is around 300K, so it's nothing insanely large. But it does tend to lean towards a size issue.
Also, turning on WCF tracing, I found the following exception occuring:
System.ServiceModel.ProtocolException: The maximum message size quota for incoming messages (65536) has been exceeded. To increase the quota, use the MaxReceivedMessageSize property on the appropriate binding element.
at System.ServiceModel.Channels.HttpInput.ThrowHttpProtocolException(String message, HttpStatusCode statusCode, String statusDescription)
at System.ServiceModel.Channels.HttpInput.ThrowMaxReceivedMessageSizeExceeded()
at System.ServiceModel.Channels.HttpInput.ReadBufferedMessage(Stream inputStream)
at System.ServiceModel.Channels.HttpInput.ParseIncomingMessage(Exception& requestException)
at System.ServiceModel.Channels.HttpChannelListener.HttpContextReceived(HttpRequestContext context, Action callback)
So from the exception, it looks as though one of the settings if off in my web.config, but here is what that looks like:
<system.serviceModel>
<behaviors>
<serviceBehaviors>
<behavior>
<serviceMetadata httpGetEnabled="true"/>
<serviceDebug includeExceptionDetailInFaults="true"/>
</behavior>
<behavior name="MetadataEnabled">
<serviceDebug includeExceptionDetailInFaults="true"/>
<serviceMetadata httpGetEnabled="true"/>
<useRequestHeadersForMetadataAddress>
<defaultPorts>
<add scheme="http" port="8081"/>
<add scheme="https" port="444"/>
</defaultPorts>
</useRequestHeadersForMetadataAddress>
<dataContractSerializer maxItemsInObjectGraph="111024000"/>
</behavior>
</serviceBehaviors>
</behaviors>
<services>
<service name="Bandicoot.Core" behaviorConfiguration="MetadataEnabled">
<endpoint name="HttpEndpoint"
address=""
binding="wsHttpBinding"
bindingConfiguration="wsHttp"
contract="Bandicoot.CORE.IRepricer" />
<endpoint name="HttpMetadata"
address="contract"
binding="mexHttpBinding"
bindingConfiguration="mexBinding"
contract="Bandicoot.CORE.Stack" />
<host>
<baseAddresses>
<add baseAddress="http://localhost/Core"/>
</baseAddresses>
</host>
</service>
</services>
<bindings>
<wsHttpBinding>
<binding name="wsHttp" maxReceivedMessageSize="111024000"
messageEncoding="Text" maxBufferPoolSize="111024000"
textEncoding="UTF-8">
<readerQuotas maxBytesPerRead="111024000"
maxArrayLength="111024000"
maxStringContentLength="111024000"/>
<security mode="None"/>
</binding>
</wsHttpBinding>
<mexHttpBinding>
<binding name="mexBinding"/>
</mexHttpBinding>
</bindings>
<serviceHostingEnvironment multipleSiteBindingsEnabled="true" />
Does anyone have any other suggestions, or is there something mis-configured in my web.config that I'm just not seeing?
Thanks for any advice!
Edit: Here is the settings from my client's app.config
<bindings>
<basicHttpBinding>
<binding name="BasicHttpBinding_CORE" closeTimeout="00:01:00"
openTimeout="00:01:00" receiveTimeout="00:10:00" sendTimeout="00:01:00"
allowCookies="false" bypassProxyOnLocal="false" hostNameComparisonMode="StrongWildcard"
maxBufferSize="14194304" maxBufferPoolSize="14194304" maxReceivedMessageSize="14194304"
messageEncoding="Text" textEncoding="utf-8" transferMode="Buffered"
useDefaultWebProxy="true">
<readerQuotas maxDepth="1000" maxStringContentLength="111024000"
maxArrayLength="111024000" maxBytesPerRead="1024000" maxNameTableCharCount="111024000" />
<security mode="None">
<transport clientCredentialType="None" proxyCredentialType="None" realm="" />
<message clientCredentialType="UserName" algorithmSuite="Default" />
</security>
</binding>
</basicHttpBinding>
Edit: adding addition client information:
<client>
<endpoint address="http://localhost:92/CORE.svc" binding="basicHttpBinding"
bindingConfiguration="BasicHttpBinding_CORE" contract="Core.CORE"
name="BasicHttpBinding_CORE" />
</client>
Edit: Attempted changing the service bindings to basicHttpBinding - config changes:
<basicHttpBinding>
<binding name="basicHttp" maxReceivedMessageSize="111024000"
messageEncoding="Text" maxBufferPoolSize="111024000"
textEncoding="UTF-8">
<readerQuotas maxArrayLength="111024000" maxBytesPerRead="111024000" maxStringContentLength="111024000"/>
<security mode="None" />
</binding>
</basicHttpBinding>
<service name="Bandicoot.Core" behaviorConfiguration="MetadataEnabled">
<endpoint binding="basicHttpBinding"
bindingConfiguration="basicHttp"
contract="Bandicoot.CORE.IRepricer" />
<endpoint address="mex"
binding="mexHttpBinding"
bindingConfiguration="mexBinding"
contract="IMetadataExchange" />
<host>
<baseAddresses>
<add baseAddress="http://localhost/Core"/>
</baseAddresses>
</host>
</service>
And the client's app.config as well for reference:
<bindings>
<basicHttpBinding>
<binding name="BasicHttpBinding_CORE" closeTimeout="00:01:00"
openTimeout="00:01:00" receiveTimeout="00:10:00" sendTimeout="00:01:00"
allowCookies="false" bypassProxyOnLocal="false" hostNameComparisonMode="StrongWildcard"
maxBufferSize="65536" maxBufferPoolSize="524288" maxReceivedMessageSize="100000000"
messageEncoding="Text" textEncoding="utf-8" transferMode="Buffered"
useDefaultWebProxy="true">
<readerQuotas maxDepth="32" maxStringContentLength="8192" maxArrayLength="16384"
maxBytesPerRead="4096" maxNameTableCharCount="16384" />
<security mode="None">
<transport clientCredentialType="None" proxyCredentialType="None"
realm="" />
<message clientCredentialType="UserName" algorithmSuite="Default" />
</security>
</binding>
</basicHttpBinding>
</bindings>
<client>
<endpoint address="http://localhost:92/CORE.svc" binding="basicHttpBinding"
bindingConfiguration="BasicHttpBinding_CORE" contract="Core.CORE"
name="BasicHttpBinding_CORE" />
</client>

Answer 1

You need to be setting the maxReceivedMessageSize on the client (where the message you're returning from your service is incoming) - in its app.config or web.config:
<system.serviceModel>
<bindings>
<wsHttpBinding>
<binding name="wsHttp" maxReceivedMessageSize="111024000"
messageEncoding="Text" maxBufferPoolSize="111024000"
textEncoding="UTF-8">
<readerQuotas maxBytesPerRead="111024000"
maxArrayLength="111024000"
maxStringContentLength="111024000"/>
<security mode="None"/>
</binding>
</wsHttpBinding>
<mexHttpBinding>
<binding name="mexBinding"/>
</mexHttpBinding>
</bindings>
<client name="whatever">
<endpoint name="HttpEndpoint"
address=""
binding="wsHttpBinding"
bindingConfiguration="wsHttp"
contract="Bandicoot.CORE.IRepricer" />
</client>
</system.serviceModel>
The default value for maxReceivedMessageSize is 64K, unless you change it.

Answer 2

I finally figured this one out this morning. The problem was that my service was not using the configuration settings that I thought it was. The reason? The service name in the configuration needs to be a fully qualified path to the service being implemented.
I found this link helpful figuring it out.
I found it a little odd that my service worked without pointing it to an actual endpoint, I guess it just uses a series of default values and if you want something different you can configure them in the web.config? I think this explains why I was getting a basicHttpBinding when I consumed the webservice in my client, instead of wsHttpBinding.
Took a few days to figure it out, but was educational. Thanks for the suggestions!

Answer 3

I had the same error and the cause was revealed to be a configuration error, too.
But in my case this was, like marc_s already posted, the maxReceivedMessageSize setting on the server side. The server was still using its default configuration, which was as low as 64 kb.
As obvious as this now sounds, that long it took me to find out that the error was not on my (client) side.
I hope that this may help someone else.

Answer 4

Hi Question Poster "Brosto"!
This supplements your Nov 17 '10 at 15:29 answer.
We had a “fun”, or should I say “educational” Production Deployment Testing issue today that took most of the day to resolve, and it was literally caused by one keystroke. We only confirmed the source of the problem, after we found out the problem disappeared after the Web Farm was fully deployed.
Here was the cause. When we test our Production Deployment, and do so against a “Single Server” by changing our hosts file, we are bypassing the Load Balancer, and the call to the Single Server ends up going over the default http port 80! When we test against the “Load Balancer”, the call to the Single Server from the Load Balancer, ends up going over the Load Balancer defined port 81!
Since the Service Endpoint Address must be “fully qualified”, to enable the service to find its Custom Bindings, the Services.config file on the Single Server must be changed to reflect the difference between “Single Server” vs “Load Balanced Server” endpoint connections, as follows:
Single Server connection:
endpoint address="http://www.myserver.com:80/Services/MyService.svc"
Load Balanced Server connection:
endpoint address="http://www.myserver.com:81/Services/MyService.svc"
My boss correctly diagnosed the core problem early, saying that the server was acting like the custom bindings were being ignored and the defaults were being used instead. After showing him your comment above where you mention the requirement of “fully qualified” service endpoint address, he realized that the host file redirection was causing our browser request to go to the Single Server over default port 80, instead of the Load Balanced port 81, which in effect altered the fully qualified service endpoint address, which caused the server to ignore the custom bindings and revert to default settings. Please note that it did NOT fail to call the service, it only failed to bind the custom bindings!
Hopefully someone will remember this posting the next time we Production Test a Service with custom bindings :)