# ssh timeout value



## shadowfax (Mar 15, 2003)

Hi,

  I use ssh to connect to my school server; however, after about 5 minutes of inactivity, this is the message I get:

Read from remote host xxx.xxx.xxx: Connection reset by peer
Connection to xxx.xxx.xxx closed.

  And I was wondering if there is a way to keep the connection even without activity for a long while.

Thanx in advance.


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## kilowatt (Mar 17, 2003)

In the sshd config file on the server running sshd, uncomment or add the following line:

```
KeepAlive yes
```
This will allow sshd to re-establish a connection if it drops for a few secs - offten thats what terminates a ssh session.

On my SGI, that file is in /etc/ssh/sshd_config


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## shadowfax (Mar 17, 2003)

Thanx, I have asked numerous people about this, and you are the only that had given me a straight answer to remedy this problem.

Once again, thank you!


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## kilowatt (Mar 17, 2003)

You're very welcome!

Here's to hoping thats all you need to do


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## shadowfax (Mar 20, 2003)

It seems like even though I uncomment 

keepalive yes

in the sshd_config file, my connect is still dropping.  Any ideas?

thanx


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## btoneill (Mar 21, 2003)

You said you're sshing to a server at school, you updated the sshd_config file on the school's server, or on your local box? This has to be done on the schools server side, most of the time its' put in place as a security feature as they don't want people to have connections left open.

Brian


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## shadowfax (Mar 21, 2003)

I don't have the permission rights to go into sshd_config

To make the long story short, before I bought my PB, I use my PC to ssh into my school's server and I was using putty to ssh in.
What I realize was that in putty, no matter how long the inactivity period was, I was still connected unless the server crash.  

So, since I didn't have to edit sshd_config for the connection to stay alive, there should be a way to keep my connection alive in a shell or is this a windows vs. unix thing?...

thanx


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