Comments on: Disable SSH timeouts http://rackerhacker.com/2007/04/12/disable-ssh-timeouts/ Words of wisdom from a server administrator Wed, 16 May 2012 12:56:36 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: todd kaufmann http://rackerhacker.com/2007/04/12/disable-ssh-timeouts/#comment-15746 todd kaufmann Fri, 15 Jan 2010 22:00:13 +0000 http://rackerhacker.com/2007/04/12/disable-ssh-timeouts/#comment-15746 I think you only want keep-alive set iff you have network address translations that expire in a short time (like an hour), which many firewalls will do. Otherwise, WITHOUT keepalive, I've gone to work with my laptop, come back to my home network, hit enter and have my ssh connection still be there. With keepalive on, it will die as soon as it tries to send a packet and the network isn't there (like as soon as you bring it out of standby/hibernate and the time expires and the network connection isn't up yet). If you are ssh-ing through a VPN tunnel you should NOT use this. If the VPN goes down, your ssh connection will die when a keepalive packet is sent. Otherwise, it can be down indefinitely, then brought back and have ssh be okay. If your firewall expires idle connections, then go ahead and use. Otherwise, it will just ensure that your connection dies sooner. In either case, be sure to run screen on the remote server--then you can resume your login connection from anywhere and not worry about it. I think you only want keep-alive set iff you have network address translations that expire in a short time (like an hour), which many firewalls will do.

Otherwise, WITHOUT keepalive, I've gone to work with my laptop, come back to my home network, hit enter and have my ssh connection still be there. With keepalive on, it will die as soon as it tries to send a packet and the network isn't there (like as soon as you bring it out of standby/hibernate and the time expires and the network connection isn't up yet).

If you are ssh-ing through a VPN tunnel you should NOT use this. If the VPN goes down, your ssh connection will die when a keepalive packet is sent. Otherwise, it can be down indefinitely, then brought back and have ssh be okay.

If your firewall expires idle connections, then go ahead and use. Otherwise, it will just ensure that your connection dies sooner.

In either case, be sure to run screen on the remote server--then you can resume your login connection from anywhere and not worry about it.

]]> By: Brian R. Hickey http://rackerhacker.com/2007/04/12/disable-ssh-timeouts/#comment-15743 Brian R. Hickey Thu, 14 Jan 2010 14:31:44 +0000 http://rackerhacker.com/2007/04/12/disable-ssh-timeouts/#comment-15743 It makes me crazy when things like this aren't included in the config files... at least commented out. Thanks for the info. It makes me crazy when things like this aren't included in the config files... at least commented out. Thanks for the info.

]]> By: John http://rackerhacker.com/2007/04/12/disable-ssh-timeouts/#comment-15652 John Fri, 18 Dec 2009 02:40:54 +0000 http://rackerhacker.com/2007/04/12/disable-ssh-timeouts/#comment-15652 Thanks, This is perfect...just what I needed for the mother of all XSL translations! Thanks,
This is perfect...just what I needed for the mother of all XSL translations!

]]> By: major http://rackerhacker.com/2007/04/12/disable-ssh-timeouts/#comment-15651 major Fri, 18 Dec 2009 00:54:58 +0000 http://rackerhacker.com/2007/04/12/disable-ssh-timeouts/#comment-15651 Good point, Kyle. That certainly would be helpful. ;-) Good point, Kyle. That certainly would be helpful. ;-)

]]> By: Kyle Gato http://rackerhacker.com/2007/04/12/disable-ssh-timeouts/#comment-15650 Kyle Gato Fri, 18 Dec 2009 00:52:09 +0000 http://rackerhacker.com/2007/04/12/disable-ssh-timeouts/#comment-15650 Then restart SSHD? Then restart SSHD?

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