I have a feeling the sockets are plenty fast enough, I think its buffering at some level that is causing the issue. Or something. What's really strange is the fact that when I print the line in two pieces it takes longer than if I send it all out as one, which is exactly what buffering is supposed to help with. I guess the buffering overhead could be just that high in which case maybe sensing a local connection and turning off buffering would do the trick (if you can even fully turn it off).