[TriLUG] SSH via CygWin

[Scott Chilcote]

Jaimie Livingston wrote:
> Hello All,
> 
> I SSH into various servers using CygWin. There are a few servers that time
> out my SSH connection after a few minutes of inactivity.
> 
> What controls this? Is it a firewall rule, a kernel setting, or a client
> setting? 
> If it's even possible, what's the best method to change this behaviour at
> the user level?

Hi Jaimie,

There is more than one way to make an sshd server time out an idle 
connection.  I doubt there's any direct way for the client (e.g. the 
user's ssh command) to override this setting.

It's usually a good thing to allow the server administrator to decide 
how long a user can remain idle.  This allows the connection to be 
closed if the user's system loses its internet connection, or if the 
user forgets to disconnect and gets up and leaves his terminal session 
unattended.

If you're using public key authentication, there may be a timeout set in 
the authorized keys file for the account you're connecting to.  This is 
described here:

   http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/sshtdg/chapter/ch08.html

In general the idle timeout would be set in the server's 
/etc/sshd_config file, unless a different config file is being passed to 
sshd on the command line.

--
Scott C.