A system connected to a home dsl connection is unreachable from time to time. The ssh session is locked. Starting a new session is not possible. After some time (10 to 30 minutes) it will be possible to log in again.
At first I felt it was caused by an unreliable internet connection. During one of the incidents a local user was still able to visit webpages (not 100% sure that the pages were not taken from the browser cache). However in the log files I find entries concerning oom-killer events which I never saw before. My understanding of memory management and kernel technicalities is not great. After googling I am not able to determine if the connection problem and the oom-killer might be related. The system is running the 2.6.8 Debian kernel. It's a Pentium 4 with 1 GB RAM and 1GB swap. Are those oom problems related to hardware, kernel or userland software? Can they be avoided? Are these problems common or is it something that is particular to our software/hardware setup? The system is mainly used as a dropbox for a huge amount of mail. Mutt is opening and working on a 1.5 GB mbox. Considering this usage, should we apply special configuration or should a 'vanilla system' be able to cope with this? I am mostly concerned with the connection problems. Should I assume that the two issues are related? Regards, Bob -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
