The Chinese (Web Servers) Are Coming

Glyn Moody writes "The February 2009 Netcraft survey is not the usual 'Apache continues to trounce Microsoft IIS' story: there's a new entrant — from China. 'This majority of this month's growth is down to the appearance of 20 million Chinese sites served by QZHTTP. This web server is used by QQ to serve millions of Qzone sites beneath the qq.com domain.' What exactly is this QZHTTP, and what does it all mean for the world of Web servers?"

Comments

Self-Censored

[FredFredrickson]

Self Censoring Web servers! Automatically removes all politically sensitive info for you! This will catch on quick, I bet!

Re:Self-Censored

[UID30]

Self Censoring Web servers! Automatically removes all politically sensitive info for you! This will catch on quick, I bet!

pfft. I've had this running as an apache module for years. mod_bigbrother ftw.

Re:Self-Censored

[Anonymous Coward]

This of course is true as long the majority is not forced under 30$k level because then the only branch of economy that actually sees growth is security firms and prison service.
One must also ask question based on recent events - how much of these 19m$ (to keep your example) is real and how much was value 'added' by finance sector (mostly using spreadsheet software)?

By all means - let people make their business and get rich or super rich but if balance is lost then society dissipates and the only way to keep it together is by violence. This does not happen of course if these 3ok$ people can still provide food for their children and have at least some hope of getting their piece of the cake.

Now to the rationale beyond cutting taxes for different parts of society. I suppose whether you deliver a tax cut to super rich (30+m$) the tax cut does not matter that much as they have means to optimize their tax burden anyway. If you cut taxes for people that have little you have guarantee that they spend at home as they have direct needs they need to address. The same middle class with a difference that they may actually invest the saved income. From what I see tax cuts still cost money but have real effect only in bottom and middle part of society. This of course provided that the system is well balanced (again this word) as overtaxed businesses indeed collapse and those that do not especially small ones may find their progress inhibited. Again the international corporations will find ways to avoid too much burden anyway not because they are evil of course but because they can. So the actual burden is carried by small and middle businesses and that is where tax cuts are felt.
Now you may continue in believing in the system of
tax cuts for super-rich and big corporations but I think you should do what they do - look at your pocket - does the tax cut leave more money in it or not - if it does then it is a good thing for you. I would not worry to much about these super rich that you seem to care so much - they always find ways to survive. It gets unpleasant if small people cannot.

Re:Self-Censored

[Fulcrum of Evil]

trickle-down economics *works*.

Yeah, it got Reagan elected. As an economic theory, it's bunk - rich people are rich because they spend a lot less than they earn.

Re:Self-Censored

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes it works. It gives jobs to people in Dubai, India, and China, all completely irrelevant to the average American.

Trickle down economics doesn't do a single damn thing for the American who is out of work and needing a job. Getting projects done like infrastructure does create American jobs. Look how the US got out of the Great Depression. It wasn't trickle down spending that pulled us out of that, it was getting people to build bridges, roads, and infrastructure.

In previous recessions, the FED was able to use control measures to help things. However, the FED has no more cards to play. Interest rates are at zero percent. Now the FED can't do its job in mitigating recessions, so there isn't a bottom in sight.

Finally, stocks are a zero sum game. What goes up must come down, and right now, the people in the stock market are paying for the other people who made soaring profits in past years.

Re:Self-Censored

[kiddygrinder]

What's the difference? they're still taking money out of the machine. 100 people on 30k will keep a lot more money moving than 1 person on 3 mill

Re:Self-Censored

[Falconhell]

Lets just look recently eh?

Giving money to the rich in the form of tax cuts has left the economy in a great state has it not?

Frankly the naivety of folk who believe in the con called trickle down effect borders on complete stupidity.

Corrected Story Blurb

[JWSmythe]

... the appearance of 20 million Chinese phisher sites ...

Re:Corrected Story Blurb

[Anonymous Coward]

Nippon QQ
Ash gala wonderful
Easy rider salad the mall
Who dong hide label
GOO! GOO! GOO! GOO!
BUS! BUS! BUS! BUS!

Re:Corrected Story Blurb

[Profane MuthaFucka]

As in, a dozen men stand around a woman and QQ all over her face.

Re:Corrected Story Blurb

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm also part of this conversation!

Population growth

[dimethylxanthine]

Didn't they implement the 1 server per company policy some time ago now...?? oh wait.

The GeoCities of China?

[eldavojohn]

Could someone help me out here, I am an ignorant occidental American developer barely able to use English ... I thought QQ was just a messaging program of bloated malware and adware that is insanely popular in China? Has it become (or is it aiming to become) more than that?

Its parent company is a media company ... is this destined to be China's GeoCities era with horrid user generated web content alongside ads and malicious user generated data like GeoCities in the 90s? Or maybe the Myspace/Facebook of China?

What exactly is this QZHTTP?

I honestly don't know. Never heard of it before now, my Google Fu finds nothing in English. Indicating it is most likely propriety to Tancent QQ ...

I hope this didn't affect the IPv4 exhaustion date.

I guess this could also just be a whole lot of fuss over something that will become common place. I mean with the event of virtualization, hilarious 32 core chips due out and predictably cheap storage/memory ... won't every large company soon be able to foot the bill on and house (what appears to be) 20 million web servers? I guess IP addressing, routing & bandwidth will always be a problem but the hardware is sure getting to the point.

Re:The GeoCities of China?

[the white plague]

I thought 'QQ' was "round eyes filled with tears".

Re:The GeoCities of China?

[JWSmythe]

    My guess on the QZHTTP thing is that they're simply sending their own banner, rather than that of their real server. It's not exactly rocket science. Anyone who's good enough to handle millions of domains can set one line of configuration I wish we had some examples. The qq.com domain itself, besides being pathetically slow, gives these headers:

telnet www.qq.com 80
Connected to www.qq.com.
Escape character is '^]'.
GET ? HTTP/1.1

HTTP/1.0 400 Bad Request
Server: squid/2.6.STABLE5
Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2009 17:17:23 GMT
Content-Type: text/html
Content-Length: 1336
Expires: Tue, 24 Feb 2009 17:17:23 GMT
X-Squid-Error: ERR_INVALID_URL 0
X-Cache: MISS from rainny.qq.com
Via: 1.0 rainny.qq.com:80 (squid/2.6.STABLE5)
Connection: close

    So, I'd guess they're basing that analysis on the Via or X-Cache lines (or both)

For those who aren't familiar with the headers, this is what it looks like from Slashdot
telnet slashdot.org 80
Trying 216.34.181.45...
Connected to slashdot.org.
Escape character is '^]'.
GET ? HTTP/1.1

HTTP/1.1 400 Bad Request
Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2009 17:19:49 GMT
Server: Apache/1.3.41 (Unix) mod_perl/1.31-rc4
Connection: close
Transfer-Encoding: chunked
Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1
Vary: Accept-Encoding, User-Agent

I'll simpify the rest, and just show the "Server:" line.

Apache.org: Server: Apache/2.2.9 (Unix)
Microsoft: Server: Microsoft-HTTPAPI/2.0
Whitehouse.gov: Server: AkamaiGHost
cnn.com: Server: Apache

Re:The GeoCities of China?

[MightyMartian]

Netcraft confirms it! Apache is dying, to be replaced by Apache!

Re:The GeoCities of China?

[querist]

I don't know about malware in QQ's software, but QQ is much more than just China's answer to Microsoft Messenger.

QQ is a portal site that links to search engines and also provides users a place to create their "home" on the Internet, much like live.com and other sites.

Yes, QQ is insanely popular in China, as is MSN and Yahoo! chat.

Re:The GeoCities of China?

[Anonymous Conrad]

Try qzone.qq.com rather than just qq.com.

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2009 17:41:06 GMT
Server: QZHTTP-2.3
Content-type: text/html
Content-length: 1728
Connection: close

Re:The GeoCities of China?

[ObsessiveMathsFreak]

What exactly is this QZHTTP?

I honestly don't know. Never heard of it before now, my Google Fu finds nothing in English. Indicating it is most likely propriety to Tancent QQ ...

Proprietary? Perhaps. But I'd be willing to bet that the codebase is more than likely a fork of Apache or another open source web server, or else a "customised" version of IIS. Copyrights are not a Chinese concept, and I doubt that a site as large as QQ claims to be is running off a web server they rolled themselves.

Re:The GeoCities of China?

[khellendros1984]

Nope. It's boobs with tassels on the nipples.

Re:The GeoCities of China?

[Anonymous Coward]

I think you are mistaken here.

The sites in question are not qq.com they are subdomains of .qzone.qq.com
(BTW http://qzone.qq.com/ by itself does not use QZHTTP 2.3 web server software it uses Apache)
like
http://182273490.qzone.qq.com/
Here is the netcraft report for that site:
http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph?site=182273490.qzone.qq.com

These sites appear to be running on Linux and state they are running QZHTTP-2.3 web server software.

Yes you can edit the banner but often netcraft digs further into it then this (response times, packet information, etc) and doesn't blindly use the banner value.

It is likely to be using a modified version of Apache like Google do with their GWS (Google Web Server) software.

And thus given a separate version of web server software in its own right. So I suspect there has to be a significant changes to the normal operation/code of Apache (or whatever they have modded). It could be a whole new set of web server software but likely a significantly modified version.

Hope it helps

Re:The GeoCities of China?

[miller60]

Netcraft's actual site report for qq.com shows it using Apache on Linux, so odds are qzhttp is either customized Apache or using altered headers.

Spoofing headers to fool Netcraft is nothing new. Bruce Perens did it with his Open Source Parking project. He was using lighttpd but wanted to help Apache's numbers.

Re:The GeoCities of China?

[Anonymous Coward]

Two things:

Use netcat, not telnet.
Send a HEAD request, not a bogus GET.

Neck-and-neck

[conureman]

LOL- good to see MS prompted to fight for its second place standing.

Why mock this ?

[Yvanhoe]

I don't understand the people mocking this. Sure this is probably a service a la geocities with a minority of webpages worth of any interest. But some are. Internet gains million of new users and publishers and people just dismiss this as non-significant while we should try to build bridges. As ugly a Myspace-QQ bridge may sound, it could be a worthwhile objective...

Re:Why mock this ?

[JWSmythe]

    Hey, that's not fair. I saw one good Geocities site....

    Once....

    A long time ago...

    Ok, you're right. :)

Re:Why mock this ?

[kabocox]

I don't understand the people mocking this. Sure this is probably a service a la geocities with a minority of webpages worth of any interest. But some are. Internet gains million of new users and publishers and people just dismiss this as non-significant while we should try to build bridges. As ugly a Myspace-QQ bridge may sound, it could be a worthwhile objective...

There are times that I'd like to give China a small hint on the best way to culturally take the US would be. First mandate an entire generation of Chinese students learn some English. Next give/sell that entire generation net books/internet cell phones. Now you just tell that generation to pick a few English/US sites and let the rest of the world know the real average Chinese view point on various subjects.

Utter chaos happens or no one notices?

How would slashdot change if we suddenly gained double or triple the current user base yet all active average Chinese folks?

Re:Why mock this ?

[Skye16]

We'd learn some sweet Mandarin phrases, get some space ships, and then live in a pseudo wild-west sci-fi sort of situation.

Just remember; I do the job, I get paid.

Re:Why mock this ?

[Anonymous Coward]

Why do you want to do this?
It seems you want to elevate the Chinese by introducing them to your superior culture.

An entire generation of Chinese students is ALREADY learning English.
They ALREADY have net books and cell phones.
They ALREADY have their own mirror internet with youtube and facebook clones.

And I already know the real average Chinese point of view because I asked them. They think their nation and culture is superior, just like most people from every other nation and culture.

Re:Why mock this ?

[Yvanhoe]

Well, in France we wondered why Americans didn't take over all French websites by learning some basic French ;-)

Seriously, what would be the point of this ? Do you think they don't have their own blogosphere, slashdot, webcomics, news sources ? All in the language that the biggest part of humanity uses ?

Re:Why mock this ?

[khellendros1984]

I remember, in the days of dialup, having a really terrible Star Trek fan page. It had a 500KB animated gif up at the top, which I converted from a video file. Glad I've grown up since then. Now I think I would put a 50MB animated gif, at least!

Re:Why mock this ?

[khellendros1984]

Correction, we would all cuss and argue in Mandarin, and that's all we would use it for (except for the cool-looking Hanzi logos on our ships!) Still....I call the engine room bunk!

Re:Why mock this ?

[russotto]

Well, in France we wondered why Americans didn't take over all French websites by learning some basic French ;-)

A) Americans, learn a foreign language? You must be joking.

B) Taking over French things is the Germans' job.

Software vs. content

[geekmux]

"...What exactly is this QZHTTP, and what does it all mean for the world of Web servers?"

Ah, what does it all mean? I dunno, are the Chinese proposing some sort of new web server protocol standard? Is there a new RFC out?

Seems we might be confusing web content with web server software and/or protocols. IM and blogging isn't exactly new, and neither is the idea that whatever China chooses to put online en masse would be larger than just about anything else in the world based on their population numbers alone.

Re:Software vs. content

[Anonymous Conrad]

Ah, what does it all mean? I dunno, are the Chinese proposing some sort of new web server protocol standard? Is there a new RFC out?

They've just called their software 'QZHTTP'. Try 'telnet qzone.qq.com 80' and 'HEAD / HTTP/1.0' and you'll see for yourself:

Server: QZHTTP-2.3

I don't think anyone's suggesting there's a new protocol here.

Websites

[iztehsux]

I really don't care what they're serving up on QQ as long as they knock it off with the repeated brute force SSH attempts every single day.

What exactly is this QZHTTP

[dimethylxanthine]

Ships with mod_serialz, mod_sslstrip, mod_censorhip and mod_smtprelay all configured and ready for use out of the box.

The biggest problem with QZHTTP

[Anonymous Coward]

An hour later and your browser is hungry for headers again.

The Great Scrabble Offensive of Twenty Ought-Nine!

[MaxwellEdison]

I knew it! China is finally making their move by grabbing up all q's. Then when we least expect it they'll slam down QUAMQUAM on a triple word score and we'll be toast! Why else would the Chinese have such a firm grasp of the Latin language?

In other news,

[SilentBob0727]

served by QZHTTP. This web server is used by QQ to serve millions of Qzone sites beneath the qq.com domain

A quorum of queasy, quitting queens, quaffing questionable quaaludes, quietly quote quips of quality quite exquisitely.

Please no more...

[ericrost]

Stop linking to zero content, zero insight, zero analysis blogs!

Re:LOL web admins

[tjstork]

Every job has a cost - the opportunity cost. Reduce that cost and you increase wealth.

It's whose wealth is being increased, is the question that we're asking here.

Re:Pheature creep...

[Fred_A]

Ah, is it still considered phishing when it's a feature enabled by default?

Just curious.

Teach one man to phish and he can feed...

Teach 20 million to phish and you have the Internet.

I, for one, am thrilled!

[beadfulthings]

It's a whole new arena from which the Chinese hackers can continue to launch their lame--but oh, so annoying--port scans and root login attempts. I'm jaded enough to be willing to bet money that the security will be up to the usual high Chinese standards--absent unless they decide to block something. Every day I have the same struggle: Bad Self says, "Just block the whole goddamned country." Good Self says, "Shame on you." One of these days, Bad Self is going to win.

(Speaking of lame login attempts, the firewall just blocked the first one ever from Rwanda. Good Self is telling me that I should be encouraged that they actually have an Internet there...)

Might be a version of thttpd instead

[TheLink]

I think it's more likely to be a version of thttpd because of an error message I got:

telnet qzone.qq.com 80
Trying 58.251.60.181...
Connected to qzone.qq.com.
Escape character is '^]'.
GET - HTTP/1.0

HTTP/1.1 400 Bad Request
Server: qhttpd
Connection: close
Content-Type: text/html
Content-Length: 235

<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>400 Bad Request</TITLE></HEAD><BODY><H2>400 Bad Request</H2>Your request has bad syntax or is inherently impossible to satisfy.<HR><ADDRESS><A HREF="http://www.tencent.com/">qhttpd Server</A></ADDRESS></BODY></HTML>

Compare that message with:
thttpd-2.25b
libhttpd.c: "Your request has bad syntax or is inherently impossible to satisfy.\n";

Re:Good News ! Dear China : +1, Informative

[khellendros1984]

"Get some Cyrillic fonts" doesn't make any sense. It's not a lack of fonts that are causing the problem, it's the non-unicode character encoding (Latin-1).

oblig

[ianare]

You must be new here.
Don't swim against the current, but perpendicular to it.

qhttpd

[ianare]

they're using qhttpd and linux.

filtered/parsed results from running :
nmap -A -T4 -F 182273490.qzone.qq.com

Port80-TCP : i686-pc-linux-gnu

501 Method Not Implemented
The requested method 'OPTIONS' is not implemented by this server.
http://www.tencent.com/ - qhttpd Server
Server: qhttpd
Connection: close
Content-Type: text/html
Content-Length: 255

info on qhttpd :
http://www.xman.org/Qhttpd/design.shtml