Instead of calling the input handler from different areas of the code, make a thread that always checks. Not sure how fast to check, but could get by with between 100 to <=1000 times per second.

There should be at least 1 millisecond sleep. Checking returns nearly instantly if there was no input. Change if statement to while loop so it runs "faster" if there is more input to process.

This is important for blocking functions such as reconnect with 10 second timeout: that's 10 seconds of input blocking that prevents the user from closing the client. That is not acceptable.

Make input handle checking its own thread and be done with it. :)