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From: karn@FLASH.BELLCORE.COM.UUCP
Newsgroups: mod.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re:  ICMP messages
Message-ID: <8702220538.AA13788@flash.bellcore.com>
Date: Sun, 22-Feb-87 00:38:29 EST
Article-I.D.: flash.8702220538.AA13788
Posted: Sun Feb 22 00:38:29 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 22-Feb-87 10:59:36 EST
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The ARPA Internet
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Approved: tcp-ip@sri-nic.arpa

As I mentioned in my original message, the cost of the extra memory
to keep all those daemons around may be prohibitive. However, I was
suggesting that the *TCP* never give up, not SMTP. Clearly you still need
application-level timers for the reasons you describe (although you can
get into trouble there as well by making them too short). I was saying
that *TCP* perhaps is better off without a give-up timer, especially
if the application has no way to control it.  If the application wants to
give up if TCP can't get the data across, it can set a timer of its  own
before sending its data.  This is more in keeping with the original
philosophy of TCP timers as expressed in the original spec, but nobody
seemed to pay much attention to it.

Phil