Netscape V3.0.x has persistent connection troubles with Squid 1.2

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Hiya,

        After extensive tracking and tcpdump'ing I've finally managed to
track down problems we've been seing with Squid 1.2 and also probably why
most of you I've reported this to can't see it themselves.

        Netscape V3.0.x has a fairly broken implementation of persistent
TCP connections. When this interoperates with Squid 1.2 things go bad,
and it winds up with Squid and Netscape port hopping trying to decide
where to send the request from, and where to receive it. A tcpdump sees
a request from Netscape being simultaneously sent over over two different
TCP connections from two different ports from Netscape V3.0.x. (3.0.2 is
what I'm using).

        The resultant request gets lost and Squid 1.2 evetually reples with
a connection timeout. Apparantly the Apache guys had similar problems when
they were implementing persistent connections support. I don't know what
they did to fix it, but the problem currently exists in 1.2 (even it is
really Netscape V3's fault).

        The problem does not happen/appear under Netscape V4 when talking to
Squid 1.2. I don't really know where to start. For now, my fix would be
to effectively hobble persistent TCP connections in Squid 1.2 since I don't
know enough about this yet and that's the quickest fix for now.

        Any help guys?

                Stew.

-- 
Stewart Forster (Snr. Development Engineer)
connect.com.au pty ltd, Level 9, 114 Albert Rd, Sth Melbourne, VIC 3205, Aust.
Email: slf@connect.com.au   Phone: +61 3 9251-3684   Fax: +61 3 9251-3666
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