Hi,
I am running a client-server program with client running on a
linux machine with 2.4.18-14 kernel installed.
When the server announces zero-window to the client, client
starts sending zero-window probes which are nothing but
unacceptable segments.
A short trace obtained using tcpdump and interpreted using
ethereal is shown below:
16:27:17.979349 e.f.g.h.33464 > a.b.c.d.40000: P Seq=76441951 Ack=802335667 Win
5840 len=1080
16:27:18.040407 a.b.c.d.40000 > e.f.g.h.33464: . Seq=802335667 Ack=764413031
Win 0 len=0
16:27:18.256213 e.f.g.h.33464 > a.b.c.d.40000: . Seq=764413030 Ack=802335667
Win 5840 len=0
This sequence continues as per retransmission algorithm with
same seq no. and ack no on both ends of TCP connection.
It can be seen above that unacceptable zero-length packets with
a sequence no. already unacknowledged is being used as
zero-window probes.
Zero window probes are defined in RFC 793 and RFC1122 to be a
data segment containing atleast one byte of data beyond the
window of the receiver who has closed the window.
This seems to be a bug. Has it been already fixed in later
kernel versions or is this how it is intended to remain?
Regards,
Praveen
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