How does NetworkStream work in two directions?

Question

I\'ve read an example of a Tcp Echo Server and some things are unclear to me.

TcpClient client = null;
NetworkStream netStream = null;

try {
  client = list         


        

Answer 1

You are right that technically when performing Read() operation, you are not reading bits off the wire. You are basically reading buffered data (chunks received by a TCP and arranged in a correct order). When sending you can Flush() that should in theory should send data immediately, but modern TCP stacks have a bit of logic how to gather data in appropriate size packets and burst them to the wire.

As Henk Holterman explained, TCP is a full duplex protocol (if supported by all underlying infrastructure), so sending and receiving data is more of when you server/client reads and writes data. It's not like when you server send data, a client will read it immediately. Client can be sending it's own data and then perform Read(), in this case data will stay in network buffer longer and can be discarded after some time it no-one want to read it. At least I've experienced this when dealing with my supa dupa server/client library (-.