The "listen" sections in 3.0 have a new entry: max_pps = 300 If that socket receives MORE than that many packets/s, it throws away all new packets. The packet/s counter is tracked in a sliding window over the last second. That means "the number of packets received in the second immediately before receiving the current packet". It's not tracking the number of packets in the current wall-clock second. The feature is mainly intended for accounting sockets. It is *very* expensive to process accounting packets. They can usually be discarded without a problem, as the NAS will retransmit them. The idea is to set the "max_pps" to some fairly large value. Then if the server receives a sudden influx of traffic, it won't die. Instead, it will continue to make progress at a steady rate. The feature has another configuration entry in the "thread pool" section: auto_limit_acct = yes/no If set to "yes", it auto-limits accounting packets. The server maintains a queue of packets for child threads. With auto_limit_acct=yes, it tracks the rate at which packets leave the queue, and the rate at which they enter the queue. If the queue is more than half full, AND the rate of entry is larger than the exit rate, it throws the accounting packet away. All other packet types are unaffected. The idea here is for the server to automatically adapt to overload conditions. If it's getting traffic than it can handle, it starts to throw away that traffic. Suggestions for better heuristics are welcomed. Testing is also welcomed. :) Alan DeKok.