Timo Sirainen writes:
With stateful firewalls or NATs each connection would require at least some memory and CPU. I didn't mean they'd necessarily cost much, but they're not free either.
Not just memory and CPU - I've seen evil NAT boxes that apparently discard an old connection or two when the total number of connections is too high.
... S: mumble OK C: IDLE S: + <silence for five or ten minutes> <the NAT box silently discards the connection> Using a large number of sometimes silent TCP connections is begging for trouble when one of those NAT boxes are involved. --Arnt
