How can i protect my server from multiple queries on port 80?

Question

Hello guys, i have a very simple server running WAMP on a windows machine, with a php code who is a simple API for my clients that returns an XML. The things is that the hardware is very modest, and if a user calls the link to the API and hits F5 many times (calls the link repeatedly) the server performance goes down a little (response time goes up). Is there a way to limit the queries on port 80?

I know how to limit this in the the php code, but i think it is not good practice because even if you limit the queries on the php code the query is already made and I'm consuming resource checking with php if the user is making many queries.

Answer 1

Well, if you want to catch it before it reaches PHP, an Apache module would be one approach, e.g. mod_cband. Other than that, your firewall might help you, but I don't know if the default Windows one is up for that.

Other than that, handling it in your PHP code wouldn't be that bad. Yes, checking a DB consumes time, but it's still faster than collecting and returning XML.

Answer 2

Implement access control to the resources, keep track of active sessions and don't initiate heavy tasks while that particular user has a task open...?