diff --git a/secop/protocol/dispatcher.py b/secop/protocol/dispatcher.py
index acfe279..4371728 100644
--- a/secop/protocol/dispatcher.py
+++ b/secop/protocol/dispatcher.py
@@ -24,10 +24,10 @@
 Interface to the service offering part:
 
  - 'handle_request(connectionobj, data)' handles incoming request
-   will call 'queue_request(data)' on connectionobj before returning
+   it returns the (sync) reply, and it may call 'queue_async_reply(data)'
+   on the connectionobj
  - 'add_connection(connectionobj)' registers new connection
  - 'remove_connection(connectionobj)' removes now longer functional connection
- - may at any time call 'queue_async_request(connobj, data)' on the connobj
 
 Interface to the modules:
  - add_module(modulename, moduleobj, export=True) registers a new module under the
@@ -286,7 +286,7 @@ class Dispatcher(object):
     def handle_request(self, conn, msg):
         """handles incoming request
 
-        will call 'queue_async_request(data)' on conn or return reply
+        will call 'queue_async_reply(data)' on conn or return reply
         """
         self.log.debug(u'Dispatcher: handling msg: %s' % repr(msg))
 
diff --git a/secop/protocol/interface/__init__.py b/secop/protocol/interface/__init__.py
index 85a0fb0..067ef46 100644
--- a/secop/protocol/interface/__init__.py
+++ b/secop/protocol/interface/__init__.py
@@ -32,8 +32,10 @@ def encode_msg_frame(action, specifier=None, data=None):
     data may be an json-yfied python object"""
     action = action.encode('utf-8')
     if specifier is None:
-        # implicit: data is None
-        return b''.join((action, EOL))
+        if data is None:
+            return b''.join((action, EOL))
+        # error_activate might have no specifier
+        specifier = ''
     specifier = specifier.encode('utf-8')
     if data:
         data = json.dumps(data).encode('utf-8')
diff --git a/secop/protocol/interface/tcp.py b/secop/protocol/interface/tcp.py
index 6a95f41..a32d684 100644
--- a/secop/protocol/interface/tcp.py
+++ b/secop/protocol/interface/tcp.py
@@ -49,14 +49,15 @@ CR = b'\r'
 SPACE = b' '
 
 
-
+class OutputBufferOverflow(Exception):
+    pass
 
 class TCPRequestHandler(socketserver.BaseRequestHandler):
 
     def setup(self):
         self.log = self.server.log
         # Queue of msgObjects to send
-        self._queue = collections.deque(maxlen=100)
+        self._queue = collections.deque() # do not use maxlen, as items might get lost
 #        self.framing = self.server.framingCLS()
 #        self.encoding = self.server.encodingCLS()
 
@@ -92,7 +93,8 @@ class TCPRequestHandler(socketserver.BaseRequestHandler):
                 outdata = encode_msg_frame(*outmsg)
                 try:
                     mysocket.sendall(outdata)
-                except Exception:
+                except Exception as e:
+                    self.log.error('error on sendall: %r', e)
                     return
 
             # XXX: improve: use polling/select here?
@@ -139,6 +141,8 @@ class TCPRequestHandler(socketserver.BaseRequestHandler):
                 else:
                     try:
                         result = serverobj.dispatcher.handle_request(self, msg)
+                    except OutputBufferOverflow:
+                        raise
                     except SECoPError as err:
                         result = (ERRORPREFIX + msg[0], msg[1], [err.name, str(err),
                                                                  {'exception': formatException(),
@@ -164,6 +168,11 @@ class TCPRequestHandler(socketserver.BaseRequestHandler):
     def queue_async_reply(self, data):
         """called by dispatcher for async data units"""
         if data:
+            # avoid queue growing to infinity. the needed size of the queue might be
+            # a multiple of the total number of parameters -> use a big number
+            if len(self._queue) > 10000:
+                self.log.error('output message buffer overflow')
+                raise OutputBufferOverflow()
             self._queue.append(data)
         else:
             self.log.error('should async_queue empty data!')