 <p>Your OS will buffer a certain amount of incoming TCP data. For example on Solaris this defaults to 56K but can be reasonably configured for up to several MB if heavy bursts are expected. Linux appears to default to much smaller values, but you can see instructions on this web page for increasing those defaults: <a href="http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/linux-tcp-tuning/" rel="nofollow">http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/linux-tcp-tuning/</a></p>