From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Jan 8 18:49:07 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 465A116A41F for ; Sun, 8 Jan 2006 18:49:07 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from steve@digitalbluesky.net) Received: from harmony.digitalbluesky.net (dsl093-010-046.cle1.dsl.speakeasy.net [66.93.10.46]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with SMTP id B771E43D45 for ; Sun, 8 Jan 2006 18:49:06 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from steve@digitalbluesky.net) Received: (qmail 4727 invoked by uid 0); 8 Jan 2006 18:49:48 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO willow.digitalbluesky.net) (steve@digitalbluesky.net@192.168.1.1) by harmony.digitalbluesky.net with SMTP; 8 Jan 2006 18:49:48 -0000 Message-Id: <6.2.1.2.0.20060108133151.02034088@mail.digitalbluesky.net> X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 6.2.1.2 Date: Sun, 08 Jan 2006 13:49:04 -0500 To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org From: Steve Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed Subject: dns lookups lagging server X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 08 Jan 2006 18:49:07 -0000 Hello, I've been running FreeBSD 5.3 on an Intel Celeron server at home for about a year flawlessly. The server is behind a linksys router on a Speakeasy DSL connection. The server is used for internal network backups and do a small amount of web/email hosting. Just yesterday afternoon however, when I tried to ssh into the box from the private side of the network, the connection timed out. Several times. Out of curiosity I tried to ftp to the box and that connection timed out as well. Apache was running and the box still served webpages, but it was extremely slow - on the order of minutes to process and return even simple static pages. The only thing that wasn't laggy and seemd to work okay was email and samba. I hooked up a monitor and keyboard to the server and was able to log in. top, ps and lsof commands didn't show anything out of the ordinary with the box and it seemed quiet normal. I tried to establish an ssh session, which worked after a long delay. So all the internet services setup on the box were running, just very slow, to the point where connections would timeout. Eventually, I turned off dns lookup in sshd_config. When I tried a ssh session after doing that, it worked right away. I turned off dns lookup related commands in apache and proftpd and those services responded normally again (no significant lag or connection timeout errors). So from the actions I took, it seems like there is a problem with the various services trying to do dns look ups on users who try to connect to the box somehow. Since the problem started with no apparent involvement on my part (I had neither installed or uninstalled any applications, etc.), should I assume there is a dns server problem with my ISP? The desktops here at home don't have a problem with dns themselves - it just seems to be the FreeBSD server. What else should I be doing to diagnose the problem? Steve Bopple www.digitalbluesky.net