Re: IE4 Persistent Connection Bug

[dolske () reston wcom net (Justin Dolske)]

On Mon, 25 Jan 1999, Drazen Kacar wrote:

> >      The browser will display "abcde," and the IE logo will stop
> >      circulating. However, the connection will not -- as requested by the
> >      server -- close. If you issue another page request in the browser for
>
> You mean "as requested by the origin server." Connection header is hop-by-hop,
> which means that it has a meaning for a connection between origin server
> and proxy server only.

I included this in my original example just to clarify that MIE shouldn't
be attempting to make a persistant connection "through" the proxy. This
header is not needed to cause the behaviour in question, however.

> It doesn't. Your netcat "proxy" violates it. Here's a quote from RFC 1945:
>
>   Except for experimental applications, current practice requires that
>   the connection be established by the client prior to each request and
>   closed by the server after sending the response.

Yes, but that doesn't address what the client should do if it wants to
send a second request but the connection has not yet closed. Consider that
network latency may result in the server's/proxy's FIN being delayed --
the client would still send the request, even though the connection is
being closed. From the client's point-of-view, it can't tell the
difference between a delayed close and netcat not closing the connection
at all.

The point is not who should be closing the connection, but that MIE is
sending a second request over a connection that has not been negotiated to
be persistant.

Justin Dolske   (dolske () reston wcom net)
MCI WorldCom Advanced Networks                 Interlock Firewall Development


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