This link has helped me a lot to interpret netstat -a
A copy from there -
TCP Connection States
Following is a brief explanation of this handshake. In this context the "client" is the peer requesting a connection and the "server" is the peer accepting a connection. Note that this notation does not reflect Client/Server relationships as an architectural principal.
Connection Establishment
The client sends a SYN message which contains the server's port and the client's Initial Sequence Number (ISN) to the server (active open).
The server sends back its own SYN and ACK (which consists of the client's ISN + 1).
The Client sends an ACK (which consists of the server's ISN + 1).
Connection Tear-down (modified three way handshake).
The client sends a FIN (active close). This is a now a half-closed connection. The client no longer sends data, but is still able to receive data from the server. Upon receiving this FIN, the server enters a passive close state.
The server sends an ACK (which is the clients FIN sequence + 1)
The server sends its own FIN.
The client sends an ACK (which is server's FIN sequence + 1). Upon receiving this ACK, the server closes the connection.
A half-closed connection can be used to terminate sending data while sill receiving data. Socket applications can call shutdown with the second argument set to 1 to enter this state.
State explanations as shown in Netstat:
State Explanation
SYN_SEND
Indicates active open.
SYN_RECEIVED
Server just received SYN from the client.
ESTABLISHED
Client received server's SYN and session is established.
LISTEN
Server is ready to accept connection.
NOTE: See documentation for listen() socket call. TCP sockets in listening state are not shown - this is a limitation of NETSTAT. For additional information, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
134404 NETSTAT.EXE Does Not Show TCP Listen Sockets
FIN_WAIT_1 Indicates active close.
TIMED_WAIT
Client enters this state after active close.
CLOSE_WAIT
Indicates passive close. Server just received first FIN from a client.
FIN_WAIT_2
Client just received acknowledgment of its first FIN from the server.
LAST_ACK
Server is in this state when it sends its own FIN.
CLOSED
Server received ACK from client and connection is closed.