[ic] Verisign PFPRO Transactions Getting Dropped

[John Young]

Fred Pope mentioned:
> I think that this is right on. We aliased the site so it does not look
> like it is in a CGI-BIN directory. Yesterday, and the day before....the
> fast spyders got stuck in the site for a long time. The site is running
> on a heavily populated server (CPU USAGE 5.00 4.97 3.00) and I think
> that this is an accurate assessment of what is going on. The problem was
> not there when the spyders were not clogging the isles of our store, so
> I will keep an eye on it and see if we have any more problems. 


This thread prompted a thought that I can't find a record of in the
list archives or the Wishlist - this is also an idea that I have no
idea how to implement, and that I am guessing would take some
significant effort:

Process or session prioritization, possibly configurable/optional, such
that critical processes or sessions such as those dealing with payment
gateway transactions operate at a higher-than-average priority, and
processes or sessions for spider traffic operate at a lower-than-average
priority.  That second one would probably be even more difficult than
the first.

I don't see this as being a priority, just an idea - and probably
one that has already been contemplated - and perhaps not worth
the effort and/or overhead.  Not to mention that hardware just keeps
getting cheaper and faster...

John Young