Re: TCP: a practical question

["\"Zow\" Terry Brugger" <zow () acm org>]

Sorry for the late replies -- just getting caught up -- the four-way
handshake is indeed not used on contemporary networks. In fact, I'm
pretty sure it was never used much at all. In a true client/server
architecture, it certainly doesn't make sense; but one must remember
that it came from the same era as active FTP, so there was this sense
that clients would become servers, and in such an environment, it's
completely feasible that the SYNs could cross paths and essentially
save a round-trip before data started flowing. I'm sure this was
important when the Internet backbone was 56kbs, but not so much today.

It's worth noting that I submitted an experimental RFC to the IETF,
and in it I explicitly noted that I was not going to address the TCP
four-way handshake because it wasn't used and one of the reviewers
really flew off the handle and said I didn't understand anything about
TCP and some other really unprofessional comments. I can only assume
that it was whomever insisted on the inclusion of the four-way
handshake in the first place, some 25 years ago, is still out there
and active in the RFC process.

Cheers,
Terry

#include <stddisclaim.h>

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