KeepAlive or not to KeepAlive

[Jeff]

I constantly have to tweak Apache based on the type of traffic it has and content it delivers. One big decision it KeepAlives. I have always found that I get mixed results with this setting. I have read countless opinions on it, but basically have it boiled down to two options. If the server gets a lot of traffic, then KeepAlives (with a low timeout) go on, and if it gets medium to light traffic, off it goes.

One would think just keeping them on would be the best but it has always been my experience that the server performs better under the above configurations. I am sure there are arguments on either side of the issue, just reporting what I notice in the field.