Hi, It is my second java application using Socket, and only now I discovered that Java doesn't support non-blocking socket I/O (I wonder how my first program worked correctly, since I used available()). I know that starting from version 1.4 there is NIO, but for many reasons I cannot use it. So the question is: how to get a non-blocking behaviour? I think that the only working solution is using threads, but should I really manage 4 threads for just 2 connections (2 for input, 2 for output)? And what is the better (thus simple: I don't need very high quality architectures...) design? Is there some tutorial or resources? Thank you!

I cannot use NIO because server and clients will run on a local network (don't know if it runs the 1.4). Since client and server are the same program (just running in different modes) I think it would be better not to specialize the code, mantaining it simpler. I will go with threads, even if I still think that if the available() method worked, simple program as mine one would be easier to make...sigh!
Thank you for the help!