Technical issues on Linux

[richb at pioneer.ci.net (Rich Braun)]

I'm looking for hints on fixing any of three technical problems associated
with managing high-volume Linux servers...

1)  The TCP connect() system call apparently never times out in current
  versions of Linux.  This caused mail server crashes here during the AOL
  outage Tuesday (hundreds of sendmail processes building up, waiting
  indefinitely for the AOL server to come back up).
2)  Packet fragmentation problems lead to frequent complaints that the
  web pages can't be viewed without glitches (this includes www.bcs.org).
3)  I notice syslogd taking up an inordinate amount of processor time,
  causing slowdowns in POP3 email access and logins (ftp, etc).  Sometimes
  it takes upwards of a minute for an item to get logged, if a lot of
  system activity is taking place, during which the syslogd process (on a
  P-133, mind you) is racking up 80% or more of CPU usage.

-rich