Subject: Webpage over SSL timing out?

From: "Sarah Haff" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 07 Oct 2003 15:17:49 -0700

I appologize if this posting appears twice. :)

Hi,

We have a webserver that is serving image (gif/jpg) file over SSL. I am 
using Apache 2.46 compiled with SSL/PHP/mod_rewrite support. I did not 
include any other module.

The webserver seems to work fine. However if a webpage has mutiple image 
files, not all the image files load, and "broken image icons" are shown 
instead. Seems like the SSL/HTTP connection is timing out. Is there a way to 
increase this timeout period. I don't mind if take a little longer to load 
the page, but the user should see all the image file.

Another alternative is to use a HW based SSL solution like nCipher's CHIL. 
But I want to make that the last option, since I dont want to re-configure 
the HW/application on the server.

Any ideas on how other sites handle image files over SSL. I need the image 
file over SSL, because they are scanned images of confidential information.

Thanks.
Sarah.

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From: Cliff Woolley <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 7 Oct 2003 18:26:48 -0400 (EDT)

> the page, but the user should see all the image file.

This is actually most likely a problem with either SSL session caching or
with "keepalive" HTTP requests.  What settings are you using for the
SSLSessionCache directive?  Does this only happen with Internet Explorer?
If so, are you using the SetEnvIf directive suggested at
http://httpd.apache.org/docs-2.0/ssl/ssl_faq.html#msie ?

--Cliff

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From: Mads Toftum <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 8 Oct 2003 01:07:08 +0200

On Tue, Oct 07, 2003 at 03:17:49PM -0700, Sarah Haff wrote:
> instead. Seems like the SSL/HTTP connection is timing out. Is there a way 
> to increase this timeout period. I don't mind if take a little longer to 
> load the page, but the user should see all the image file.

Check Cliffs suggestions about SSLSessionCache (the shm type is preferable
for performance reasons).
Other suggestions could be turning on keepalives and possibly to remove
some of the weaker cipher options from SSLCipherSuite.
> the HW/application on the server.
How does the cpu usage look on the server? If the load isn't high, then
you probably won't win much with an ssl accelerator.

> file over SSL, because they are scanned images of confidential information.
Just like any other file type - apache doesn't really care what it is.

vh

Mads Toftum
-- 
Speaking at ApacheCon 2003 - http://ApacheCon.com/
T03, "Apache 2 mod_ssl tutorial" (3h)
WE03, "Troubleshooting Apache configurations" 
WE11, "Apache mod_rewrite, the Swiss Army Knife of URL manipulation" 
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