TCP Stream in a tcp dump off a remote network segment showed proper handshake and conversation up to the 8s mark followed by a 20s delay where no packets were sent from either client or server. Server send sent FIN,ACK followed shortly by client's ACK and then RST packets. Why wouldn't the client send a FIN? And is FIN,ACK the proper response for a session timeout from the server's side?
The RST means that the client had already closed the connection.
The FIN means that the server closed the connection. It's one reasonable response to a timeout.
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I understand that the client and the server are connected after client receives SYN ACK messages from the server during 3 way handshake and sending ACK messages to the Server. After they are connected, when the client sends the other messages to the server, what happens if that messages arrives at the server before the ACK message that client sent when doing the 3 way handshake?
what happens if that messages arrives at the server before the ACK message that client sent when doing the 3 way handshake?
ACK is just the flag in the TCP header together with the sequence number of the latest received data. It can be contained in an empty packet (i.e. no payload, just TCP header) but also in a packet with payload. It does not matter if a specific packet with an ACK is received as long as an ACK covering the data is received at all.
This means it is sufficient if the initial data send by the client cover the final ACK for the TCP handshake. In fact there is not even a need to send a standalone ACK (without payload) from the client at all to finish the TCP handshake but the client can start sending data as soon as the client has received the SYN and ACK from the server.
Im trying to write a server client program, where client sends request through UDP socket to a server, then server responds back to a client through TCP socket.
My question is, how can server establish a TCP connection back to a client after getting the request through UDP?
I'll add code parts on Monday, but I more interested in pseudocode for that. Does that mean that the client should listen on tcp port after sending udp request? So confused
I don't fully understand when a TCP connection ends. That is, when a client sends a request to a server and the server responds, is that response part of the same TCP connection? Or is that response made through a brand new TCP connection?
A TCP connection ends when both sides have closed it. A response is sent over the same connection as the request, and there can be many request/response pairs over a single connection. Or none, just a download for example.
when a TCP client wants to establish a tcp connection with a tcp server
it needs to send SYN and then ACK
while tcp server only sends SYN/ACK
so they are different
but , after the 3_way handshaking,
is this connection symmetric, namely, are TCP client and server in equal status
for example, after the 3-way handshake, usually the client send packet first,
can TCP server send packet first?
No, the procedure is not different at all, but instead of sending a SYN then an ACK in two different packets, the servers concatenate them by sending them via a single packet!
In the other hand, remember always that the client/server nomenclature is relative. The server is the party that remains in listening mode, while the client is the party that initiates the connection ...
After the establishment of the connection, both parties are equivalent (same status as you said: ESTABLISHED). For that reason, both can send the FIN statement to close the connection ...
After the connection is established, both ends are indeed "symmetric". Who sends first is decided by the underlying protocol and differes amongst them.
For example, HTTP starts with the GET <path> HTTP/1.0 command, while other protocols let the server give a greeting line first, and only then the client sends its request.
So in general, both ends are free to send their stuff first.
Connect function returns after sending the last ACK(3rd segment of 3-way handshake of initiating TCP connection). What happens if this 3rd segment is lost because listen is still waiting for ACK at server but there is no one at client to send that ACK again ?
If the client sends its ACK with a data packet, and it gets lost, the client will notice that the data hasn't been ACKd by the server and resend the packet.
If the client sends its ACK in a separate packet, and it gets lost, the server will notice that the SYN/ACK hasn't been ACKd by the client and resend the packet. Client will respond by resending the ACK.
Whether the application's connect call is still blocking at that time doesn't matter, since the ACKing is done by the OS's TCP/IP implementation.