101 · Question #499
An Administrator enables HTTP keep alive. How does this affect the network?
The correct answer is B. Fewer TCP connections will need to be opened. HTTP Keep-Alive enables persistent TCP connections, allowing multiple HTTP requests to share a single connection instead of opening a new one for each request.
Question
An Administrator enables HTTP keep alive. How does this affect the network?
Options
- AHTTP connections will remain open longer
- BFewer TCP connections will need to be opened
- CHTTP connections will close when the keep-alive times out
- DMore TCP connections will need to be opened
How the community answered
(43 responses)- A5% (2)
- B91% (39)
- C2% (1)
- D2% (1)
Why each option
HTTP Keep-Alive enables persistent TCP connections, allowing multiple HTTP requests to share a single connection instead of opening a new one for each request.
While connections do stay open longer as a side effect of Keep-Alive, this describes a mechanism rather than the primary network-level impact - the defining benefit is connection reuse, not extended duration alone.
Keep-Alive is a persistent connection mechanism that instructs both client and server to reuse the same TCP connection for subsequent HTTP requests. Because each new TCP connection requires a three-way handshake, reusing connections directly reduces the total number of TCP connections that must be established, lowering latency and resource usage.
Connections closing after the Keep-Alive timeout is normal expected behavior, not the network impact - the purpose of Keep-Alive is to serve multiple requests before that timeout occurs.
Keep-Alive reduces TCP connections by enabling reuse; enabling it would never cause more TCP connections to be opened.
Concept tested: HTTP Keep-Alive persistent connection reuse
Source: https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9112#name-persistence
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