diff --git a/echoserver/echoserver.c b/echoserver/echoserver.c
index ed61605..73e2bbc 100644
--- a/echoserver/echoserver.c
+++ b/echoserver/echoserver.c
@@ -62,8 +62,10 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
     printf("Echoserver listening on port: %d\n", ECHOPORT);
     while (quitFlag)
     {
+        // set of active connections
+        fd_set activeSet = socketList;
         // use the select() function here to check the set of sockets
-        int selectedFD = select(maxFD+1, &socketList, NULL, NULL, NULL);
+        int selectedFD = select(maxFD+1, &activeSet, NULL, NULL, NULL);
         // check to make sure select() didn't error out.
         if(selectedFD == -1)
         {
@@ -75,7 +77,7 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
         for(int fileIter = 0; fileIter <= maxFD; fileIter++)
         {
             // check to see if the file descriptor is in the set of sockets using FD_ISSET()
-            if(FD_ISSET(fileIter, &socketList))
+            if(FD_ISSET(fileIter, &activeSet))
             {
                 // if the server socket is being written to/read from,
                 if(fileIter == socketEchoFD)
@@ -111,7 +113,7 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
                     // grab the data from the client, save to message.
                     messageBytes = recv(fileIter, message, BUFFER_SIZE, 0);
                     // make sure that the connection is still open before attempting to send.
-                    if(messageBytes == 0) // old: messageBytes <= 0
+                    if(messageBytes <= 0) // old: messageBytes <= 0
                     {
                         // if it is not open, close the socket and remove the socket from the socket list using FD_CLR()
                         close(fileIter);