I’m having trouble deploying my C# Telegram bot on Render. Locally, everything works fine, but once pushed to Render, I encounter a port scan timeout error. The error message indicates that no open ports were detected and suggests binding the service to a port or creating a background worker if port traffic isn’t needed.
I’ve already tried setting custom ports like 8080 and 5000, yet the error remains. The bot uses dependency injection to set up services for the Telegram bot client and manages database initialization and seeding. Although it runs perfectly on my local machine, its deployment on Render fails with the same port issue.
Has anyone experienced this deployment challenge? I’m curious if there’s a configuration change I’m overlooking or if it’s an issue specific to Render’s environment.
hey claire, i’ve run into this too. render expects web services to have open ports, but polling bots don’t need em. quick fix: add a simple healthcheck endpoint to ur bot. just return a 200 OK on GET requests. that’ll keep render happy without changin ur bot’s core stuff. gl!
I’ve encountered similar issues when deploying Telegram bots to cloud platforms. The problem likely stems from how Render expects web services to function versus how your bot operates. Telegram bots using the polling method don’t actually need to expose a port, which conflicts with Render’s assumption that a web service should be accessible via HTTP.
To resolve this, you might need to adjust your bot’s architecture slightly. Consider implementing a simple HTTP endpoint that Render can use to verify your service is running. This doesn’t need to be complex—just a basic health check endpoint would suffice. Alternatively, you could explore switching to Telegram’s webhook method, which naturally provides an HTTP endpoint for Render to interact with.
If you’re set on using polling, you may want to look into Render’s background worker option instead of their web service. This option is designed for long-running processes that don’t require responding to HTTP requests, which aligns better with a polling-based bot.
I’ve been down this road before with Telegram bots on cloud platforms. The crux of the issue is likely the mismatch between Render’s expectations for web services and how your polling-based bot operates.
Here’s what worked for me: I added a simple health check endpoint to my bot. It’s just a basic HTTP GET route that returns a 200 OK status. This satisfied Render’s port scanning requirement without changing the core bot functionality.
Another approach that might suit your setup is using Render’s background worker feature. It’s designed for processes that run continuously without needing to respond to HTTP requests, which fits the polling model perfectly.
If you’re open to architectural changes, switching to Telegram’s webhook method could be worth exploring. It naturally provides an HTTP endpoint, aligning better with Render’s web service model.
Remember to double-check your Render configuration too. Sometimes the smallest oversight in environment variables or build settings can cause unexpected issues during deployment.