Inactive SSH Sessions Die

It happens that my SSH connections die after a period of inactivity. Sometimes after very long time, but sometimes quite quickly. I do not know if it has to do with routers, proxies, TCP/IP or the SSH server configuration, but I have found a remedy.

ssh -o ServerAliveInterval=10 ...your normal options

Note, this does not recover a connection lost due to network problems – it just makes sure the connection stays alive, even if you dont use it for a while. There are other tools (Autossh, I think) to make ssh reconnect.

This option is especially useful in combination with the -D flag; that is, when you use SSH as a SOCKS proxy. Then you typically do not use the remote console itself, just the tunnel that comes with it.

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