lynx-dev Why is Lynx listening on port 11xx ?

[Isaac]

Apologies if this has already been answered somewhere, but I spent quite
a while Googling and searching the archives for an answer and found nothing.

When I start up Lynx, and go to (e.g.) www.google.com, all is fine:

> address@hidden netstat --tcp -alp
> Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address           Foreign Address         State     
>   PID/Program name
> tcp        0      0 myhost:smtp              *:*                     LISTEN   
>    663/tcpserver

If I then go to an FTP site (e.g. ftp.gnu.org), things change:

> address@hidden:~# netstat --tcp -alp
> Active Internet connections (servers and established)
> Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address           Foreign Address         State
> PID/Program name
> tcp        0      0 myhost.mydomain:1114    gnudist.gnu.or:ftp-data CLOSE
> -
> tcp        0      0 myhost.mydomain:1114    *:*                     LISTEN
> 706/lynx
> tcp        0      0 myhost.mydomain:1113    gnudist.gnu.org:ftp     TIME_WAIT
> -
> tcp        0      0 myhost:smtp              *:*                     LISTEN
> 663/tcpserver

And then a few minutes later, once the TIME_WAITs and CLOSEs have finished,
it looks like this:

> address@hidden:~# netstat --tcp -alp
> Active Internet connections (servers and established)
> Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address           Foreign Address         State
> PID/Program name
> tcp        0      0 myhost.mydomain:1114    *:*                     LISTEN
> 706/lynx
> tcp        0      0 myhost:smtp             *:*                     LISTEN
> 663/tcpserver

What I fail to understand is why Lynx is continuing to LISTEN on my
external interface despite the FTP transfer being long finished.
If I make another FTP connection, the port it is listening to changes.

I don't like this at all. If it weren't for my firewall, anybody could
just telnet in to my running Lynx and...well, I dread to think.

Does anybody know why Lynx is doing this, and more importantly, how I can
stop it ? OTTOMH, it looks like the socket bound for a LISTEN to the
FTP data channel is not being closed when it should be.

Thanks in advance,

Isaac Wilcox



; To UNSUBSCRIBE: Send "unsubscribe lynx-dev" to address@hidden