title: how to know if a server is listening at a port
body: <p>I have created a TCP socket at one end of my application. Say the end is 1. This socket closes after about 10sec. Now the other side of my application (end 2) is allowed to connect to the above created socket.  Im coding this socket app in python, so suppose my end 2 is trying to connect to the TCP socket, but the socket no longer exists, my program terminates because of some exception. I dont want that to happen. It's like there is a while loop in my end 2. So if a connection is not available it goes back and wait.</p>