Does TCP send a SYN/ACK on every packet or only on the first connection?

Question

I have a TCP server that listens for an incoming client, then sends it one packet of data every second. I was wondering, does the SYN/ACK packet only get sent on initial con

Answer 1

Picture this: The original TCP standard RFC 793 allowed data to be sent with the first SYN packet though. However, that's not the case today. What you get is a separate SYN packet during initiation of the Three-Way-Handshake from the requestor of the connection. Suppose A requests to connect with B, thus A sends a packet with a SYN bit set. B responds with an ACK to acknowledge receipt and sends A the ACK + SYN packets. Data can then be transmitted henceforth.

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