On Mon, May 07, 2007 at 09:11:14AM -0600, Doug McNutt wrote:
> Assuming TCP-IP and not UDP does that convict the server of committing the error? Is there an observable difference between. "I answered you but the mail didn't get delivered" and "I'm sorry, I just never answered before I closed the connection"?

A FIN from the server to close the connection won't get delivered before
any intervening data. It's possible that the data from the server didn't
get delivered (due to a network crashing somewhere), but if the connection
then closes it would be due to that condition persisting.

> Would some obscure TCP logs have something to look at? A retry count or something like it?
>
> Might network address translation have anything to do with it? A packet getting lost or mangled on the return path through a local NAT router?

One lost/mangled packet shouldn't be enough to close the connection because
TCP will retry lost packets.

> Does an empty packet satisfy the HTTP requirement to respond?

The server needs to respond with an error code.

>>> Dan

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