Problem with binding of socket addresses

[Sean Casey]

jik at athena.mit.edu (Jonathan I. Kamens) writes:

|  The TCP protocol states that after a TCP stream connection has been closed
|abnormally, the same local/foreign port combination cannot be used again for
|(2 * MSL).  MSL stands for the Maximum Segment Lifetime, which is usually set
|to a minute, which means that it probably takes about two minutes before the
|address is useable again.

Not only that, but if there is pending unwritten data, the address
sometimes cannot be reused *ever* unless SO_REUSEADDR was specified.
I've had stream ports hang for a week because there was pending
outbound data when the server closed the socket.

Sean
-- 
***  Sean Casey <sean at s.ms.uky.edu>
***  "Live the journey, for each destination is but a doorway to the next..."