C#

private bool isConnected(){
    bool rVal = false;
    //an alternate way to refresh the connected status of the sock.
    try
    {
        bool blcking = sock.Blocking;
        try
        {
            byte[] junk = new byte[2];
            sock.Blocking = false;
            sock.Send(junk, 1, 0, SocketFlags.None);                         
            rVal = sock.Connected;
        }
        finally
        {
            sock.Blocking = blcking;   
        }

    }
    catch (SocketException e)
    {
        rVal = e.SocketErrorCode == SocketError.WouldBlock;
    }
    return rVal;
}

public static string SignMyData(string data2Sign)
{
   AssignPr(); //assigning the parameter, container, etc

   byte[] byte2Sign = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(data2Sign);
   
   StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(@"C:\MyPrivateKey.xml");
   string pubPriKeyXML = reader.ReadToEnd();
   rsa.FromXmlString(pubPriKeyXML);  //(I'm getting error "Invalid syntax on line 1".)
   reader.Close();

   byte[] byteSig = rsa.SignData(byte2Sign, "SHA1");
   return System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetString(ByteSig);
}