Re: how to set the idle-timeout in linux SSH

[Alexander Apprich <a apprich science-computing de>]

Hey,

M E Fieu wrote:
> Hi.. I found that one of linux server SSH login
> timeout is very fast.  How do I check the current
> timeout setting and change it.  I found the info is
> not in sshd_config 

from "man sshd_config"

ClientAliveInterval
   Sets a timeout interval in seconds after which if no data has been
   received from the client, sshd will send a message through the
   encrypted channel to request a response from the client.  The default
   is 0, indicating that these messages will not be sent to the
   client.  This option applies to protocol version 2 only.
ClientAliveCountMax
   Sets the number of client alive messages (see above) which may be
   sent without sshd receiving any messages back from the client.
   If this threshold is reached while client alive messages are being
   sent, sshd will disconnect the client, terminating the session.
   It is important to note that the use of client alive messages is very
   different from TCPKeepAlive (below).  The client alive mes-
   sages are sent through the encrypted channel and therefore will not
   be spoofable.  The TCP keepalive option enabled by TCPKeepAlive
   is spoofable.  The client alive mechanism is valuable when the client
   or server depend on knowing when a connection has become
   inactive.

   The default value is 3.  If ClientAliveInterval (above) is set to 15,
   and ClientAliveCountMax is left at the default, unresponsive
   ssh clients will be disconnected after approximately 45 seconds.

Set this in your sshd_config and restart opensshd

Hth

Alex