Question

How to increase SSH Connection timeout?

Posted on May 27, 2017
Linux Basics Ubuntu 16.04
Asked by Selçuk Ahmet

Hi everyone! I have an issue about SSH connection. Previously I set /etc/ssh/ssh_config as ConnectionTimeout 0 but still closes connection. So Am I missing something? How can I keep alive connection? What can I do anything else client-side? (I use Hyper.js on MacOSX) (Droplet: Ubuntu 16)

Edit: There is no timeout sFTP. While using Atom.

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Mouhsen Ibrahim • May 27, 2017

Accepted Answer

@selcukahmet

/etc/ssh/ssh_config is the client-side configuration file not the server side config file.

To prevent all your clients from timing out, you need to edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config, which is the server-side configuration file, add these two options:

ClientAliveInterval 120
ClientAliveCountMax 720

The first one configures the server to send null packets to clients each 120 seconds and the second one configures the server to close the connection if the client has been inactive for 720 intervals that is 720*120 = 86400 seconds = 24 hours

I hope this helps.

suhailvs • March 12, 2020

On local computer add line on file /etc/ssh/ssh_config:

ServerAliveInterval 120

this option will ping the server every 120 seconds and keep you connected indefinitely.

Stephen Wright • May 1, 2018

I have set up the sshd_config files as shown above, and I still get logged out pretty quickly. The login to the Digital Ocean’s system production system looks much the same as the login to my development system. After being logged out by D.O. the host name in the title bar still reads D.O. The other day I was checking some files I had on my D.O. production system, validating them against my local git archives? I had expected differences as the system wasn’t behaving, but there were NO differences. Only later did I realize that D.O. must have logged me off w/o my realizing it, and I was checking against my own files. These logoffs are no joke. The virtual terminal provided by D.O. is too slow to use. Hopefully someone can give me a hand. Perhaps the tools provided by Atom will help.