Kernel Socket Structure – Understanding Kernel Socket Structure and TCP_DIAG

TCP keepalive. Rips down connections if they're unused, after 2 hours. Can be easily changed. See http://tldp.org/HOWTO/TCP-Keepalive-HOWTO/usingkeepalive.html

In a nutshell, kernel tunable "tcp_keepalive_time" which is exposed via /proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_keepalive_time can be changed from the default 7200 as required.

1. Sockets are an operating system API. This API lets applications on same or different systems communicate over the TCP and UDP (and other) protocols. UNIX domain sockets (not internet domain sockets as you write) provide similar functionality for communicating with applications on the same system only. The concepts for both are similar: the API provides ways to create a socket, bind, listen+accept and connect a socket, to read and write on it and to shut it down. Regarding read and write they match other file descriptors which relate to regular files, named pipes, anonymous pipes etc but the creating of the file descriptor is different and there are some more operations on the file descriptor compared to for example regular files.
2. A port number in TCP and UDP is an integer between 1 and 65535. The word "port" is used as short for "port number". The tuple of IP address and port number and protocol describes the endpoint address. Calling it port instead will cause confusion when reading other literature.
3. An unconnected (but already bound) socket represents only a single endpoint (ip,port,protocol). A connected socket represents a local endpoint and another (local or remote) endpoint, i.e. a connection. One cannot have multiple in-kernel sockets for the same connection but one can have multiple file descriptors for the same in-kernel socket. One can have the same endpoint in multiple connected sockets but not for the same connection, i.e. the other endpoint of the connection must be different. One can actually have multiple unconnected sockets representing the same endpoint but this is very unusual.
4. Sockets can be shared between processes since sockets are file descriptors and file descriptors can be shared. Sharing is typically done by forking, i.e. the parent opens some file or socket and the child inherits it. But there are also ways to send a file descriptor/socket from one process to another. Sharing means that both can write and read but no data will be duplicated, i.e. if the parent reads some data these data are taken from the socket and cannot be also read by the child. But it is not possible that one process creates a new socket (instead of sharing an existing one) which represents exactly the same connection as an existing socket on the same system.
5. Two sockets/connections can share the same port on one endpoint but they cannot share both endpoints, i.e. at least one of source IP, source port, destination IP, destination port or protocol needs to be different.