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Asked: 2026-05-23T15:45:12+00:00

What happens if a client connected through a Socket has a bad lag ?

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What happens if a client connected through a Socket has a bad lag ?
Let’s say i call socket.read() from the TCP server, and the client writes some stuff on the network pipe, but his connection is laging for 1 or 2 minutes. What will happen ? Will the read fail ? Or will it wait ?

I’m not sure if it’s even possible, but i’m playing online chess on FICS server and sometimes it seems to happen from my point of view (I’m only a user of this chess server).

I’m asking this because i’m working on an online game and i’d like to handle such cases one way or another. But first I need to know if:

  • it can happen
  • it can be detected

Thanks

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    I’d advise not relying solely on setting the SO_TIMEOUT variable but rather add application-level heartbeats between your client and server. If either the client or server does not receive a heartbeat message within a specified time (e.g. within twice the heartbeat frequency) it should sever the connection, and in the client’s case attempt a reconnect.

    Using a heartbeat mechanism also allows you to measure the lag by monitoring the delay in receiving heartbeat messages on each end.

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