Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!rutgers!clyde!cbosgd!ucbvax!BU-CS.BU.EDU!bzs
From: bzs@BU-CS.BU.EDU (Barry Shein)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: socket states
Message-ID: <8706202015.AA26202@bu-cs.BU.EDU>
Date: Sat, 20-Jun-87 16:15:50 EDT
Article-I.D.: bu-cs.8706202015.AA26202
Posted: Sat Jun 20 16:15:50 1987
Date-Received: Mon, 22-Jun-87 06:49:43 EDT
References: <739@hao.UCAR.EDU>
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Distribution: world
Organization: The ARPA Internet
Lines: 23


>For us beginners with TCP and sockets, and after reading the recent discussion
>here about LAST_ACK and FIN_WAIT_2 states, I would be very interested (and
>I suspect I'm not the only one) in reading an explanation of what the various
>socket states are and exactly what they mean. I'm the site admin for a machine
>that is very new on the Internet, and due to the cost difference, I've had
>to shift from phone line uucp links to NNTP/SMTP internet links as much as
>I can, which now accounts for 80+% of our traffic, but I still don't understand
>how this stuff really works, nor is there any good information from a system
>administrator's point of view on it (I'm NOT a kernel hacker).
>
>--Greg

Every symbol you see in netstat output (state) from Unix corresponds
exactly to a box in the diagram on page 23 of RFC-793 (Transmission
Control Protocol), same names etc, should be an AHA! when you look
at it.

Although the state diagram is a tad forbidding a few minutes study
should reveal that it is all actually quite clear and provides good
insight into such arcanum.

	-Barry Shein, Boston Universityt