Etienne Posthumus wrote:

[snip]

> Keep-alive used to be a directive in HTTP 0.9 days to specify that the TCP
> connection should not be closed between requests. That specific directive
> has been deprecated and now in HTTP 1.1, that behaviour is the default.
> IOW, all connections stay open by default, but either side can close the
> connection with no warning for whatever reason.
>
> Pipelining is something else altogether. It means sending multiple
> requests even if the reponses for the first request has not been received.
> It is also known as 'boxcarring' for the metaphor of sticking your
> requests together like in a roller-coaster and sending them off, even if
> the first request (car... :-) hasn't completed a circuit of the roller
> coaster yet.

Thanks, Etienne. I admit I have used the term 'pipelining' to refer to
'multiple requests per connection', even though I've only heard the term
used (outside of my own head) with its 'boxcarring' connotation. My
apologies to all.

To clarify: my concern with the Quentel server is that -- at least in my
tests -- it closes the TCP connection after a single request has been
fulfilled.

-- Graham