[MLB-WIRELESS] [OT] Server madness - was re: test test 123

[Grant McHerron]

(obSorry for OT posting - but it impacts my time to play with wireless gear 
so.... :)

Must be the time of year for it - the folks at hotspace.net.au host one of 
my client's email systems and they're going through some problems with 
their box (apparently hardware related) - they're building a new one right now.

Meanwhile over at an Internet host machine I'm sysop for, we're 
experiencing some wierd problems. It's a linux box running qmail, clamav 
(antivirus), macafee (antivirus) and spam assassin. Over the past couple of 
months we've started to see the machine slow to a crawl, acting to all 
intents and purposes as if it were dead. The first couple of times we had 
to get our hosting providers to reboot it but then I narrowed it down to 
the email system. I've since put a limit of 7 concurrent SMTP processes and 
reduced the memory available somewhat which has resulted in the system just 
slowing to a crawl for 15 to 30 minutes before coming back to life. Of 
course, I tweaked the memory limit down tooo much one day and mail 
processing started bombing out for lack of space, etc, so hopefully I've 
found an acceptable middle ground.

Is this anything like what's happening to m.w.o.a? Anyone else seen 
behaviour like this? I thought it might have been a script kiddy sending us 
the dictionary as often as possible but can't find evidence for/against that...

Cheers,

Grant


------------------------------
Grant McHerron
Tao Ceti Pty Ltd

685 Spencer St, West Melbourne, VIC 3003
Ph: +61 3 8327 0829             Fax: +61 3 9228 3257
http://www.taoceti.com.au       grant at taoceti.com.au
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