firewall connection problem

[Dave Barr <Da...@Phoenix.com>]

We have the following setup:

* Apache 1.3.14 and mod_jk running on Solaris 8 in the External network
* AJP13 between Apache and Tomcat 3.2.1
* Tomcat running on an Internal network protected by a Xylan switch

Periodically while trying to get to jsp pages on the Tomcat machine the TCP
connection appears to have dropped. I found the following on another mailing
archive:

	Routers and fire walls may have settings in them that decide that a
connection has been idle too long and close it. We had a problem with an
installed product (ours) that kept having problems connecting to other
components. (Distributed app). After months of finger wagging and getting
chewed out by the customer and getting the threats of pull outs and all that
their particular make of Cisco router had this setting set to kill those
idle connections by default. When we set the setting to ignore how long a
connection was sitting idle, the problem went away. 

I have a feeling that something like this is happening to us. What I want to
understand is exactly what is happening here. When I try to access the jsp
page and it fails, then that doesn't mean it will fail for ever. After a
period of time it appears as though the connection is re-established and the
jsp page is accessible again. We aren't restarting apache or tomcat in this
period. Does anybody know what forces the connection to be re-established.
Also what can we do to avoid this problem?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Dave