Server simulating a 408 timeout?

I have asked this question on stack overflow and got pointed towards this forum. My question is below:

Is it possible for a server to simulate a http 408 error? A payment processor is trying to send a http post to my website and they say that in their logs a connection is being made but my server is responding with a http 408 after 0.1 seconds. Is it possible for them to send a 408 back instantly hence no actual timeout?

1 answer i got was:

Certainly a server can return a HTTP 408 error immediately, if it chooses to do so. This would be an abuse of the error code, but it is possible. You may want to use a packet sniffer to see if a 408 is being sent from your server, or from some upstream proxy.

My new question is:

How would i go about checking to see if this is the case?

Thanks

P

Solution 1:

Your webserver should have an access log or error log that indicates the URL requested and the response code for that request. If the request was not logged by your server, then some proxy has intercepted the request. If the request was logged by your server with a different response code, then some proxy is messing with the request in ways it shouldn't (or this payment processor is wrong about what code they received). If the request was logged by the server with the 408 error code, then you'll need to figure out why. Most likely the response code is telling the truth and something is timing out, so you will need to see where you have a timeout configured (most servers have a timeout limit in addition to whatever scripting or programming environment you're using, so you will need to check at least two places).

You'll need to tell us more about your environment if you want more details (what is the server, Apache? What is the URL requested written in, PHP? How is it run (mod_whatever, fastCGI, etc?).