Bugs and Term Wish List

Using Term to Pierce an Internet Firewall mini-HOWTO
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# 10. Bugs and Term Wish List

The linecheck program has some problems checking telnet connections sometimes. This is sometimes because it doesn't check the return code of the `read()` call it makes. For network connections, this call to `read()` can return `-1` with an `EINTR` (interrupted) or `EAGAIN` (try again) error code. Obviously this should be checked for.

There are a number of features that could ease the use of term over telnet. These primarily relate to an assumption that influenced the design of term, namely that the connection is low bandwidth, low latency, and somewhat noisy.

A telnet connection is in general high bandwidth, high latency, and error free. This means that the connection could be better utilized if (a) the maximum window size was raised, well above the limit imposed by term's `N_PACKETS/2=16`, (b) there was an option to turn off sending and checking packet checksums, and (c) larger packets were permitted when appropriate.

Also, to enhance security, it would be nice to have a term option to log all connections through the socket it monitors to a log file, or to `stderr`, or both. This would allow one to see if one's term connection is being subverted by nasty hackers on the outside insecure machine.

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