Public Sub StartBeat(ByVal pstIpAddress As String, ByVal pstPortNo As String, ByVal pstMaxTries As Integer)
 
        Dim tcpClient As New System.Net.Sockets.TcpClient()
 
        Dim Bytes2Write As [Byte]() = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes("+++")
 
        If (pstMaxTries = 0) Then
            pstMaxTries = 1
        End If
 
        Dim tries As Integer = 0
 
        For tries = 0 To pstMaxTries
            Try
                tcpClient.Connect(pstIpAddress, pstPortNo)
                Dim nstream As NetworkStream = tcpClient.GetStream()
                fstErrmsg = Write2Port(nstream, Bytes2Write, tcpClient)
                If (String.IsNullOrEmpty(fstErrmsg)) Then
                    Exit For
                End If
 
 
                nstream.Close()
            Catch ex As Exception
                fstErrmsg = ex.Message
            End Try
            If (tries = pstMaxTries) Then
                'sendemail
            End If
        Next
 
        If (tcpClient.Connected = True) Then
            tcpClient.Close()
        End If
 
 
    End Sub
 
    Private Function Write2Port(ByVal ns As NetworkStream, ByVal lBbyte As Byte(), ByVal tcpClient As TcpClient)
        Dim lstErrmsg As String = String.Empty
        Try
            If (ns.CanWrite) Then
                ns.Write(lBbyte, 0, lBbyte.Length)
 
                'Dim ReceiveByte As Byte = tcpClient.ReceiveBufferSize
 
            Else
                lstErrmsg = "Error: Cannot write data to stream"
            End If
        Catch ex As Exception
            lstErrmsg = ex.Message
        End Try
 
        Return lstErrmsg
    End Function