Execute one command and return is exactly what process() is supposed to do; sorry if that is not clear. It's not meant to close the socket until it receives a BYE command. What should happen (and what does happen, if you telnet in) is that it processes one line, returns, processes the next, and so on, until it gets a BYE, and then it disconnects, and Bob's your uncle.

Your solution would work nicely for batch processing, but that isn't what I want to do.

--TQuid