diff --git a/src/server/slave.c b/src/server/slave.c
--- a/src/server/slave.c
+++ b/src/server/slave.c
@@ -230,7 +230,7 @@ int main(int argc, char *argv[])
   // Main loop
   while(!slave_state.quit)
     {
-      multiio_poll(multiio);
+      multiio_poll(multiio, 15000);
 
       if(slave_state.quit)
 	break;
@@ -393,6 +393,7 @@ static size_t distren_slave_remoteio_rea
   size_t to_return;
 
   size_t counter;
+  fprintf(stderr, "expected to eat %d bytes\n", len);
 
   /* to_return shall record how much of buf we've eaten already */
   to_return = 0;
@@ -433,14 +434,14 @@ static size_t distren_slave_remoteio_rea
       if(!slave_state->expectlen)
 	{
 	  if(len < sizeof(struct distren_request))
-	    return 0;
+	    return to_return;
 
 	  /* figure out how much we need to read in before we can get anywhere */
 	  if(distren_request_new_fromdata(&req, buf, len))
 	    {
 	      fprintf(stderr, "Failing to interpret data from server, exiting\n");
 	      slave_state->quit = 1;
-	      return 0;
+	      return to_return;
 	    }
 	  slave_state->expectlen = sizeof(struct distren_request) + req->len;
 	  distren_request_free(req);
@@ -465,8 +466,8 @@ static size_t distren_slave_remoteio_rea
 	      fprintf(stderr, "PONG ! :-D\n");
 
 	      distren_request_poing(&my_req, &my_req_data, 0, req_data, req->len);
-	      remoteio_write(slave_state->rem, &my_req, sizeof(struct distren_request));
-	      remoteio_write(slave_state->rem, &my_req_data, req->len);
+	      remoteio_write(slave_state->rem, my_req, sizeof(struct distren_request));
+	      remoteio_write(slave_state->rem, my_req_data, req->len);
 	      distren_request_free_with_data(my_req, my_req_data);
 	      break;
 
@@ -484,16 +485,17 @@ static size_t distren_slave_remoteio_rea
 	      break;
 	    }
 
+	  counter = req->len + sizeof(struct distren_request);
+
 	  distren_request_free(req);
 	  slave_state->expectlen = 0;
 
-	  counter = req->len + sizeof(struct distren_request);
-
 	  len -= counter;
 	  buf += counter;
 	  to_return += counter;
 	}
     }
 
+  fprintf(stderr, "ate %d bytes\n", to_return);
   return to_return;
 }