"Session" is a good way to think of it. If it's inactive for too long, it can be closed and forgotten, etc. But "connection" is the correct terminology. You jus

"Session" is a good way to think of it. If it's inactive for too long, it can be closed and forgotten, etc. But "connection" is the correct terminology. You just sometimes need to be clear that you're talking about a TCP connection and not a physical connection, or even the logical connection that makes IP packets routable. It's one more layer above that. But yes - both sides maintain state about the connection. Senders will re-send packets if they go too long without being acknowledged. They will slow down large batches of sending if lots of messages are being dropped (essentially throttling in case the network is being overwhelmed and they're making it worse). And receivers will acknowledge packets as they're received and assemble messages back in the right order if packets arrive out-of-order, or bits in the middle are missing.