The thing is there should is *more* than 5 bytes in the response, so would not even this first read show more than that??
Evidently not. You have no control over how and when the data is transmitted. That's why you always need asynchronous reading for this kind of communication. For the rest, go see Niya's thread. All is there revealed. (Don't tell him I said that, It'll go straight to his head! )