need a thread to keep a socket connection alive?

[Roy Smith]

Serge Orlov <Serge.Orlov at gmail.com> wrote:
> sockobj.settimeout(550)
> [...]
> Also, as other people pointed out, you'd better make buffered socket
> with .makefile() socket method.

If I understand the docs for the socket module correctly, these two
suggestions are mutually incompatable.