Out of band messages TCP_IP

[Allott P]

We have "discovered" an apparent limit of 1 byte for the length of OUT OF BAND messages.
We are using Sun-os 4, but have the strong feeling that this is much more general.
The "sends" appear to work but the "recv" only gives one byte as being received,
and should more than one byte have been sent, then the byte received appears to be
garbage.

Can anyone explain why?  Also suggestions of work rounds would be appreciated, we need a method of reporting fatal errors over an active link.