Server "goes to sleep"

From: Bruce (bestb_at_canada.com)
Date: 11/22/04 

Date: 22 Nov 2004 12:03:36 -0800

I am having a difficult time trying to sort out a problem with a
Debian webserver, and am not even sure where to begin looking.

Setup:

Router: SMC solid state router; connects to ISP over DSL line & gets
(static) IP x.x.x.x via PPPoE.
 - Firewall & NAT running on router to protect internal network
 - Debian webserver is in DMZ outside firewall
 - All traffic destined for static IP x.x.x.x is forwarded to Debian
webserver.

WebServer: called "nancy", running Debian Sid (Mepis), with apache2,
exim4, bind9, tomcat4. Gets static IP from router (192.168.1.200).

I also have registered a domain name example.org, which my registrar
forwards to ip address x.x.x.x.

When all is up and running, I can connect to www.example.org from
anywhere on the net and this will take me to the web server running on
nancy. So far, so good (other than the fact that the address bar now
says http://x.x.x.x instead of http://www.example.org, but I can live
with that until this other problem is solved). Problem is, after about
an hour, any attempt from the internet to connect to www.example.org
will time out.

If I go to nancy, everything looks OK, network card is still up, and
if I open a web browser or try to ping an internet site, it will -
after a brief delay - connect. Once I do this, then I can access the
site from the internet again.

The brief delay is the only indicator of what might be wrong. It
almost seems as though opening the web page is triggering some kind of
"dial on demand" for the network card, as though the card had
auto-disconnected after a certain period of time. As this is a server,
this is kind of annoying behaviour.

I have no idea what I could have done to make it act like this; I did
nothing fancy to it, just absolute straightforward configuration
(ifconfig eth0 192.168.1.200 up). There is nothing in
/var/log/messages that sheds light on this either.

I'm not sure whether there is some kind of autodisconnect/dial on
demand thing happening here (where on earth would that have come
from?), but that is the best way I can describe it. I'm not sure where
to look to figure out what might be causing this; any suggestions?

Thanks,

B.

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