sub receive {
#no arguments- receives a new message 
  my($message, $j, $i, $length);
  $message ="";
  my $self=$_[0];
  my $remote=$self->{remote};
  $remote->recv($length, 10);
  while ($length){ 
    $remote->recv(my $message_block, $length > 4096 ? 4096 : $length);
    $message .= $message_block;
    $length -= length $message_block;
  }
  
  return $message;
}