Load Issues, IP Blocking

I'm currently running a web server off Amazon's AWS service (they offer a year to students for free!). The issue is that whenever the site gets too much traffic--especially repeated junk traffic from certain questionable IP addresses--the mysql database crashes and needs to be restarted.

Other than getting a better/real server, what are the best ways to deal with this? What's the best way to block IP addresses based on too many incoming connections, and what is a good method of connection monitoring for an apache web server running Amazon's linux distro?

 

.htaccess is how you can block IP addresses if that is what you're dealing with. I also offer web hosting(in my sig) that is $1/month and provides DDoS protection. Another thing I offer is litespeed webserver instead of apache. That's included.

 

Getting a better server isn't really a long term solution, unless the high load was due to authentic traffic which you said doesn't seem to be case. Since you're using Linux, something like fail2ban should do the job which blocks ip's automatically based on the number of connections.

Information on fail2ban - http://www.fail2ban.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
A guide on how to utilize it with apache - http://linuxaria.com/howto/how-to-protect-apache-with-fail2ban

If you do have issues with DDos however, then a good free solution would be implementing something like CloudFlare - https://www.cloudflare.com/

Let me know if you require any help with anything.

 

Cloudflare does NOT protect against DDoS unless you're paying for the $200/month plan.

 

The free package does give you DDos protection - https://www.cloudflare.com/plans

It's basic, but for someone like the OP it should be fine. There's no need to invest in any advanced protection unless you were getting absolutely hammered.

 

What they offer for free, I don't consider DDoS protection.

 

Is your mysql isam? Probably is, might wanna look at that.