Is anyone else having problems accessing FR?

10/30/02 | self

[snopercod]

There was a "global" internet attack last week, which was discussed here on FR. It is my sense that the slowdown of FR was coincident with that attack.

[Consort]

I installed a new cable modem and TCPIP card yeaterday and FR is still the only site I'm having trouble accessing. It's been hit and miss — mostly miss.

[Darlin']

Didn't FR's problems start about the same time as that massive internet attack ? I think it was Monday last week. Seems to me that FR has had problems ever since that day.

[spodefly]

but in the perl/database area, either processor load, or bandwidth between the web server and the database ...

My gut feeling is... ridiculous.

Thanks for the insult.

The web server is pinging consistently at 50 to 80ms from here, and does so even when the pages are timing out or very, very slow. This led me to believe that there are issues in how it is handling the perl and accessing the database, either because of load (zombies, stuck processes, bad scripts, etc.) or because of some flake on the database side (server maxed out, disks full/badly fragmented, etc.) ... every request to FR calls a perl script and a trip to the database. Since the web server is pinging nicely (50 to 80ms) then the trouble might be behind it ... I don't know how FR is configured (as you obviously do) so my guesses are just guesses.

Since you obviously have a better understanding than I do ... so I'll shut up now.

Posted by John Robinson to Miss Marple On News/Activism 10/25/2002 8:32 PM CDT #93 of 134 It is probably the searching that kill us. It puts an inconsistent load on the system. We're talking about offloading the search engine and its own database onto another machine.

Posted by John Robinson to tubebender On News/Activism 10/25/2002 9:16 PM CDT #106 of 134 We were getting upto 150 hits/sec this afternoon. We usually get about 30-40. On top of that, the database server has been having a bad day all its own, and I can tell you the extra traffic did not help that situation.

[blam]

"There was a "global" internet attack last week, which was discussed here on FR. It is my sense that the slowdown of FR was coincident with that attack."

I agree. We have not been the same since.

[BJungNan]

No, no, no. That's not the problem...(but I do note that the problem, whatever it is, seems to be fixed again).

[nutmeg]

Yes, I have been having trouble accessing FR for about two days. Once I'm on, it's extremely slooowwwww...

[js1138]

Thanks for the insult.

I meant no insult. I do believe their could be a server problem, but I have see the site perform well under load. For several days during the sniper crisis, there were threads getting a thousand posts in a couple of hours, with good performance. Whatever is wrong has happened since then.

My gut feeling is that when performance is as bad as it has been, regular FReepers give up. In fact, it you count the total posts during the daylight hours today, they are very few. So who is causing the performance degredation? I don't think it's an excessive load caused by regular FReepers.

[justshe]

From another thread : http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/778947/posts?page=29

To: per loin

It ain't working right. If I knew why, it'd be fixed. Nothing else to report at the moment, other than we've used our last bit of duct tape and Chief's auto doesn't have any more WD40. They've special ordered in a new shipment of both just for us.

20 posted on 10/30/2002 8:26 PM PST by Jim Robinson

[Irisshlass]

yes yes yes!!

[mdmathis6]

I think sprint keeps a list of hate sites they try to block and it could be that we're on the list. My router shows intrusion attempts with tcp syn flood attacks about the same times as the worst slow down at free republic is occuring. I had a terrible time getting onto drudge a few weeks ago and the same thing was happening...oddly enough after the massive DNS attack about a week ago on 9 of the 13 main routers supporting the internet, I was able to get through to drudge with out using Road Runner's proxy server. Free republic has been opening up fast in the middle of the night.

[Nogbad]

Please could you tell the rest of us:

what is sprint??

[snopercod]

Here are the original threads from last week:

Denial of Service Attack at Internet Root Servers from the AP

Powerful Attack Cripples Internet from Fox News

BTW, FR seems to be back to normal speed as I post this.

[js1138]

FR died on me completely last night. This morning it is snappy. What happened?

[KSCITYBOY]

I'm guessing some kind of attack - The # posts lastnite were way down accessing was slow all day and night. Everytime we get near a major political event the FR starts crapping out. Election day 2000 was a major strange FR day.

[southland]

It started to be better around 10:00 PM CST last night . it is a lot better today.

[snopercod]

What happened?

Don't know. But I, for one, am glad FR is humming along again. I hope the problem was solved.

[mdmathis6]

I need to apologize to to my fellow Freepers...I was thinking of Earthlink in response to a posting regarding the tracert slowdowns through the Sprintlinks and Verio routers and am forced to eat FREEPER crow....is ketchup tasty with the feathers?

Another Freeper raised an interesting point as to why the TCP packets were being redirected through these choke points instead of other gateways and subrouters being used when slow downs were occuring. It was interesting to note that my tracert showed the packets being slowed thru Verio and Sprintlinks as well....shades of carnivore?

[Conservative til I die]

Yeah, constantly. Yet we're bombarded every week with a new donation drive! Wonder whose pockets the money is going into, rather than actually keep the site going.