Delay connecting to server

[Chris]

Using v4.02 of both client and server ...

When I run either the GUI client or soscmd.exe on the machine that is running SOS Server, it connects instantly (less than half a second).

But when I connect from any other machine there is a 15-second delay while it connects. This delay is just before the GUI client displays the LogIn dialog, and before soscmd.exe displays the message "matched alias '<blah>' to database '<blah.ini>'". The delay is 15 seconds regardless of whether the client machine is on the LAN or connected by VPN. The server machine seems to be the only one that doesn't experience this delay.

Is this normal, or might there be something wrong with my configuration?

It's not a big deal for the GUI client as I would probably leave the connection open all day. But it does make soscmd.exe rather less useful as a scripting tool, since it has to reconnect for each command it executes.

Thanks,
Chris

[lbauer]

Is this the same whether you use the server IP address or server name in your connection string?

If you try to telnet to the SOS Server (telnet <servername or IP> <port>) is this connection delayed as well?

Are there any messages in the SOS Server log file such as:

Unable to get hostname from address. This *should* be non-fatal.

Any other useful info in the log.txt file? (You can email me a copy>)

[Chris]

Is this the same whether you use the server IP address or server name in your connection string?

Yes it is.

If you try to telnet to the SOS Server (telnet <servername or IP> <port>) is this connection delayed as well?

Yes it is delayed, by the same amount of time (15 seconds), on both LAN- and VPN-connected machines, whether connecting by name or by IP addresses. The only machine that doesn't experience this delay is the SOS Server itself.

Are there any messages in the SOS Server log file such as:

Unable to get hostname from address. This *should* be non-fatal.

Any other useful info in the log.txt file?

No, nothing in the log file except "Connection accepted from IP:Port on local address IP:Port, session id is X". But if I look at the log file during the 15-second delay, I can see that the SOS Server has accepted the TCP connection immediately, but then waits 15 seconds before responding.

However I happened to notice that, on our network, 15 seconds is the amount of time it takes to do a "ping -a IPAddress" (resolve IPAddress to a name). Furthermore the delay stopped occurring when I added a reverse lookup zone to our DNS server.

So obviously the SOS Server is trying to resolve the client's IP address to a name; this explains why the delay doesn't occur when I run the client on the server machine. And this is no longer a problem for us, as I have changed our DNS config. But is there a way to switch off reverse DNS lookups, like there is in Vault?

Thanks,
Chris

[lbauer]

No, but I'll add it as a feature request for a future version.

[Randyh]

Wondering how soon tell this future release?

Having the same 15 -second delay for users outisde the firewall.

Everyone connects, just takes 15 secs when your outside.

-Randy

[lbauer]

This is currently slated for SOS 4.1, due out early this fall.