[e2e] Is this a bug with Windows TCP Stack ?

[George Michaelson]

On Mon, 06 Dec 2004 15:13:09 -0800 Rick Jones <perfgeek at mac.com> wrote:

> 
>On Monday, December 06, 2004, at 02:46PM, Bob Braden <braden at ISI.EDU>
>wrote:
>
>>  *> 
>>  *> Is there progress afoot to update the TCP specs with a standardized
>mechanism to deal with the possibility of infinite time in FIN_WAIT_2?> 
>*> >  *> rick jones
>>  *> 
>>
>>Half-open connections are a feature of TCP.  You may not like the
>>feature (successive generation of Unix kernel builders have hated it)
>>but it is a feature.
>
>
>I don't hate it at all, my ire has been directed at the folks doing the
>arbitrary timers.  I just think that all those arbitrary timers and other
>stack-by-stack junk could go away if there were a spec for the _right_ way
>to deal with the possibility of a perpetual FIN_WAIT_2 when the remote
>just drops off the face of the net.

What mechanism are you proposing short of telepathy? Remember, the other
end isn't there. Anything which breaks out of the specific TCP session is
an invitation to a DoS threat or worse.

Reboot has worked since time immemorial. There are also well known kdb
hacks to force the state over (for SunOS at least, but in principle other
OS)

The Arbitrary timers are about applying a local policy. In the absense of
connected state or a trusted path to inform each other the session is never
coming back, its ad-hoc or its worse.

-George
-- 
George Michaelson       |  APNIC                 
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