We are trying to set up an Apache server on a remote machine, but we experience strange behaviour. Checking with telnet remote.machine 80, one of these things happen randomly:

• Connect and serve content normally (no delay)
• Connect after a long pause
• Connect normally, then time out without response
• Timeout on connect

Once connected, the request seems to be processed normally. These things do not occur if I connect from that machine directly to localhost 80.

The Apache is dedicated, as is the server it runs on (runs only this one application, no-one else is using it for anything else). I am not an administrator of the remote site, and I do not know the network architecture over there, but apparently it's firewalled: (HTTP port is open, SSH port is IP-restricted, most others are closed).

If there was any one pattern, I might have some ideas, but this variety of symptoms baffles me. Any ideas as to what could be causing this?

Apache is 2.2; Server version is:

Linux version 2.6.9-22.ELsmp ([email protected])
(gcc version 3.4.4 20050721 (Red Hat 3.4.4-2)) #1 SMP
Mon Sep 19 18:32:14 EDT 2005