In article <fc6kfg$12h$1@usenet01.boi.hp.com>,
Rick Jones <rick.jones2@hp.com> wrote:

> Ilkka Oksanen <ilkkao@omppu.modeemi.cs.tut.fi> wrote:
> > Any reasonable TCP stack sends RST segment after final
> > re-transmission timeout. Socket is closed after that. There
> > is no point to expect that FIN handshake would work after
> > multiple unsuccesful retransmissions of previous segment.
>
> Well, the RST isn't necessarily any more likely to get there than the
> FIN, but if it does, it does communicate the "right" message, which is
> that the connection is toast.

The problem could be in the reverse direction. So the FIN or RST would
reach the other end, and the failure could be with the ACKs. Since RST
doesn't require an ACK, it seems like the correct way to let the other
end know that the connection is failing. If the other end hasn't been
trying to send any application data, it would never realize it (because
it's not sending anything that requires ACKs).

--
Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu
Arlington, MA
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