Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2008 21:20:18 -0700 From: Jeremy Chadwick <koitsu@freebsd.org> To: Kevin K <kkutzko@teksavvy.com> Cc: freebsd-pf@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Problem with consistent disconnection of IRC sessions Message-ID: <20080425042018.GA86451@eos.sc1.parodius.com> In-Reply-To: <001801c8a643$815aa480$840fed80$@com> References: <001801c8a643$815aa480$840fed80$@com>
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On Thu, Apr 24, 2008 at 03:43:43PM -0400, Kevin K wrote: > I am running a basic freebsd 7.0 pf router/firewall for my home computer. On > this same machine I am usually running an IRC (tcp 6667) session. > > It seems as though every 30 minutes to every several hours, my IRC session > disconnects and reconnects itself. There's a pretty good chance if it's a server on a popular network (EFnet, DALnet, etc.), it may be under DoS, or may have incorrect filtering rules applied to it. If you're absolutely sure your rules are OK, then it's probably not you. The reason I say this: IRC's protocol involves a PING check which the server sends to the client every few minutes (usually; the server admin can set it to any value he/she likes, but most people pick 5 minutes), and the client is required to respond to that PING. This is more or less a poor-man's TCP keepalive. This PING is not ICMP echo/echo-reply -- it's literally part of the IRC protocol. The regularity of people on public IRC networks pinging out/timing out is immense. I sit in #bsdports and see this happen to people hundreds of times a day. The issue may also be related to Internet peering, which you have absolutely no control over. Backbone providers break the Internet on a nightly basis (this is not an exaggeration), and IRC is one of the most "real-time" environments there is, so people notice. -- | Jeremy Chadwick jdc at parodius.com | | Parodius Networking http://www.parodius.com/ | | UNIX Systems Administrator Mountain View, CA, USA | | Making life hard for others since 1977. PGP: 4BD6C0CB |
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