diff --git a/src/include/tcp.h b/src/include/tcp.h
index 12cc39a..f83f4bc 100644
--- a/src/include/tcp.h
+++ b/src/include/tcp.h
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ typedef struct {
 
 void setup_socket(server_conn_t* conn);
 
-void recv_message(char** buffer, int socket);
+int recv_message(char** buffer, int socket);
 
 /// Threaded function to handle http requests
 /// takes client socket as an argument
diff --git a/src/tcp.c b/src/tcp.c
index 205dc68..84ef4fa 100644
--- a/src/tcp.c
+++ b/src/tcp.c
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ void setup_socket(server_conn_t* conn)
 	}
 }
 
-void recv_message(char** buffer, int socket)
+int recv_message(char** buffer, int socket)
 {
 	ulong current_size, bytes_recv;
 	int status;
@@ -70,15 +70,22 @@ void recv_message(char** buffer, int socket)
 		// lets recv BUFFER_INC_LEN amount of bytes
 		status = recv(socket, *buffer + bytes_recv, BUFFER_INC_LEN, MSG_DONTWAIT);
 		if (status < 0) {
-			if (errno != EAGAIN && errno != EWOULDBLOCK) // these signify that that were just no data to read, dw about this
+			// these signify that that were just no data to read, dw about this
+			if (errno != EAGAIN && errno != EWOULDBLOCK) { 				
 				perror("recv");
-			break; // don't want to crash on a recv failure, lets just break
+			}
+			return -1;
+
 		}
 
 		bytes_recv += status;
-	} while (status == BUFFER_INC_LEN); // break when we stop receiving, status < BUFFER_INC_LEN means no more data after this last call
 	
+	// break when we stop receiving, status < BUFFER_INC_LEN 
+	// means no more data after this last call
+	} while (status == BUFFER_INC_LEN); 	
 	(*buffer)[bytes_recv] = '\0';
+
+	return 0;
 }
 
 void* connection_handler(void* arg)
@@ -86,15 +93,19 @@ void* connection_handler(void* arg)
 	int client_socket = *(int*) arg;
 	http_request request;
 	char* buffer = NULL;
+	int err;
 
-	recv_message(&buffer, client_socket);
+	err = recv_message(&buffer, client_socket);
+	if (err == -1) { // if we had a recv error lets throw away the result
+		free(buffer);
+		close(client_socket);
+		return NULL;
+	}
 
 	puts(buffer);
 
 	parse_http_request(&buffer, &request);
 
-	printf("%s %s %1.1f\n", http_method_to_str(request.method), request.request_uri, request.version);
-
 	/**
 	 * Handle HTTP request here :)
 	 */