SYN floods (was: does history repeat itself?)

Tue Sep 10 18:07:03 UTC 1996

Alec H. Peterson writes:
> 
> Pat Calhoun writes:
> >        This is actually quite simple to implement on Dial Access Routers, 
> >     and obviously this is the best place to add the filtering. 
> 
> Sure, that's a place to start.  Except for a few problems:
> 
> 1) The people doing this are not necessarily using a dialup IP
>    connection.

True. That's why you need to filter upstream of public-access unix boxes
(like our own).

> 2) Many of us don't have dial access routers that can handle this.

Also true. As I said before, I don't know about the Ascends, but I do know
that the Xylogics boxes we use have the capability but probably not the
capacity. When all ports are connected at 28.8, CPU usage can hover in
the high 80% range. Adding filters would probably be a bad idea.

That's why I was talking about filtering at a router just upstream from
the dial-access box.

FWIW, even with a thousand very busy modems, I'm pretty sure that even a
small cisco is up to the job. They just don't generate all that much traffic.

/a