diff --git a/src/comm/TCPLink.cc b/src/comm/TCPLink.cc
index 529bfc5e9ecd68e828e4cb445067fd56db6feef9..7554a4969daa02fffe170aa1323f4e327ca7a2c1 100644
--- a/src/comm/TCPLink.cc
+++ b/src/comm/TCPLink.cc
@@ -93,6 +93,9 @@ void TCPLink::writeBytes(const QByteArray data)
 #ifdef TCPLINK_READWRITE_DEBUG
     _writeDebugBytes(data);
 #endif
+    if (!_socket)
+        return;
+
     _socket->write(data);
     _logOutputDataRate(data.size(), QDateTime::currentMSecsSinceEpoch());
 }