Clearing the Serial Buffer?

[system]

...the sending device will keep sending the rest of the packet. You can't stop that, short of arranging for it to be powered off mid-stream.

Also, keep in mind this ... Say there is some line noise, which happens to be an 's'. So you find an 's' which is the noise, followed by 's' 'n' 'p' which is VALID for the next packet. By discarding everything, you actually discarded a valid packet!

I had completely overlooked that possibility! Thank you for bringing it to my attention. I have already made a state machine, so I'll just leave it as it for the most part. Thank you very much for your insight!