Persistent Connection Question

In working on the latest persistent connection draft I have come upon an
issue that I would like some comments on.

When a client wishes to close a persistent connection (after timing out or
by whatever mechanism), should it:

a) Close the TCP connection
or
b) Reset the TCP connection

A few notes:
1) Closing seems initially to be cleaner. It is the "polite" technique.

however...
2) Many clients reset every connection (From what I have observed. Maybe I
am wrong).
3) Some transport stacks have a more difficult time detecting a closed
remote connection than a reset one (The reset causes all calls to report an
error while a close causes many to continue to work).

Any advice on what I should say?

Alex Hopmann
ResNova Software, Inc.
hopmann@holonet.net

Received on Tuesday, 26 March 1996 18:08:58 UTC