title: Does listen() backlog affect established TCP connections?
body: <p>Would it be naive to create a TCP socket with a listen backlog set to minimum as a way of rate limiting new incoming connections? The server workload in question doesn't expect many new connections at any time but spends a lot of time servicing long open persistent connections. It appears that new incoming connections shouldn't affect established connections, though I've been unable to find any definitive answer in any text. Is it possible for failed new incoming connections to create some kind of TCP traffic congestion on the server with the packets it's receiving or are they dropped fast enough that it has no effect on any buffers or other part of the network stack? </p>
  
  <p>Specifically the platform in use is Linux, and although it may be handled differently in different OSs, I expect them to all behave roughly the same.</p>
  
  <p><strong>EDIT</strong> What I mean by the "same" is that backlog doesn't affect established connections, though I do understand Linux discards them while Windows sends a reset.</p>