diff --git a/bin/service/netrpc_server.py b/bin/service/netrpc_server.py
index ae1f4e8a8c1..50679eed2db 100644
--- a/bin/service/netrpc_server.py
+++ b/bin/service/netrpc_server.py
@@ -35,27 +35,37 @@ class TinySocketClientThread(threading.Thread, netsvc.OpenERPDispatcher):
     def __init__(self, sock, threads):
         threading.Thread.__init__(self)
         self.sock = sock
+        # Only at the server side, use a big timeout: close the
+        # clients connection when they're idle for 20min.
+        self.sock.settimeout(1200)
         self.threads = threads
 
     def __del__(self):
         if self.sock:
-            self.sock.close()
+            try:
+                if hasattr(socket, 'SHUT_RDWR'):
+                    self.socket.shutdown(socket.SHUT_RDWR)
+                else:
+                    self.socket.shutdown(2)
+            except: pass
+            # That should garbage-collect and close it, too
+            self.sock = None
 
     def run(self):
-        import select
+        # import select
         self.running = True
         try:
             ts = tiny_socket.mysocket(self.sock)
         except:
             self.threads.remove(self)
+            self.running = False
             return False
         while self.running:
             try:
                 msg = ts.myreceive()
             except:
-                self.sock.close()
-                self.sock = None
                 self.threads.remove(self)
+                self.running = False
                 return False
             try:
                 result = self.dispatch(msg[0], msg[1], msg[2:])
@@ -65,15 +75,15 @@ class TinySocketClientThread(threading.Thread, netsvc.OpenERPDispatcher):
                     new_e = Exception(tools.exception_to_unicode(e.exception)) # avoid problems of pickeling
                     ts.mysend(new_e, exception=True, traceback=e.traceback)
                 except:
-                    pass
+                    self.running = False
+                    break
             except Exception, e:
                 # this code should not be reachable, therefore we warn
                 netsvc.Logger().notifyChannel("net-rpc", netsvc.LOG_WARNING, "exception: %" % str(e))
                 break
 
-        self.sock.close()
-        self.sock = None
         self.threads.remove(self)
+        self.running = False
         return True
 
     def stop(self):
@@ -82,7 +92,7 @@ class TinySocketClientThread(threading.Thread, netsvc.OpenERPDispatcher):
 
 class TinySocketServerThread(threading.Thread,netsvc.Server):
     def __init__(self, interface, port, secure=False):
-        threading.Thread.__init__(self)
+        threading.Thread.__init__(self, name="Net-RPC socket")
         netsvc.Server.__init__(self)
         self.__port = port
         self.__interface = interface
@@ -101,6 +111,7 @@ class TinySocketServerThread(threading.Thread,netsvc.Server):
             while self.running:
                 (clientsocket, address) = self.socket.accept()
                 ct = TinySocketClientThread(clientsocket, self.threads)
+                clientsocket = None
                 self.threads.append(ct)
                 ct.start()
                 lt = len(self.threads)
@@ -129,6 +140,19 @@ class TinySocketServerThread(threading.Thread,netsvc.Server):
         except:
             return False
 
+    def stats(self):
+	res = "Net-RPC: " + ( (self.running and "running") or  "stopped")
+	i = 0
+	for t in self.threads:
+	    i += 1
+	    res += "\nNet-RPC #%d: %s " % (i, t.name)
+	    if t.isAlive():
+	        res += "running"
+	    else:
+	        res += "finished"
+	    if t.sock:
+		res += ", socket"
+	return res
 
 netrpcd = None
 
diff --git a/bin/tiny_socket.py b/bin/tiny_socket.py
index 9a4376891b7..387765da14b 100644
--- a/bin/tiny_socket.py
+++ b/bin/tiny_socket.py
@@ -33,11 +33,13 @@ class Myexception(Exception):
 class mysocket:
     def __init__(self, sock=None):
         if sock is None:
-            self.sock = socket.socket(
-            socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
+            self.sock = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
         else:
             self.sock = sock
-        self.sock.settimeout(120)
+        # self.sock.settimeout(120)
+        # prepare this socket for long operations: it may block for infinite
+        # time, but should exit as soon as the net is down
+        self.sock.setsockopt(socket.SOL_SOCKET, socket.SO_KEEPALIVE, 1)
     def connect(self, host, port=False):
         if not port:
             protocol, buf = host.split('//')
@@ -61,8 +63,8 @@ class mysocket:
         buf=''
         while len(buf) < 8:
             chunk = self.sock.recv(8 - len(buf))
-            if chunk == '':
-                raise RuntimeError, "socket connection broken"
+            if not chunk:
+                raise socket.timeout
             buf += chunk
         size = int(buf)
         buf = self.sock.recv(1)
@@ -73,8 +75,8 @@ class mysocket:
         msg = ''
         while len(msg) < size:
             chunk = self.sock.recv(size-len(msg))
-            if chunk == '':
-                raise RuntimeError, "socket connection broken"
+            if not chunk:
+                raise socket.timeout
             msg = msg + chunk
         msgio = cStringIO.StringIO(msg)
         unpickler = cPickle.Unpickler(msgio)