On Wed, 28 Apr 2004 15:12, Don Gould wrote:
> Thanks Nick.
>
> I've learnt a few new things about ADSL in the last few days (Like it
> doesn't like to be pushed far after the filter).

sorry you lost me there.

>
> I'm still getting problems with ssh connections dropping out for some
> strange reason.

I have seen this referred to before on the adsl list, and solutions offered 
involving various keepalive scenarios.

one suggestion is to use spinner http://www.laffeycomputer.com/spinner.html

"Spinner is an anti-idle program that displays a little "spinning" ASCII 
character in the top left corner of your terminal. To make this effect it 
cycles through punctuation marks like this " - \ | / - \ | / ... " (try it to 
see). By default the character is drawn in inverse video (or your terminal's 
equivalent). But you can turn this off with the -i switch. In spinner mode 
Spinner supports any terminal capable of handling VT100 style escape codes. 
In null mode (-n switch) Spinner supports any terminal. In null mode there is 
no visible output, and Spinner will not interfere with your terminal or 
scrollback. If you find the little spinner in the top left corner to be 
distracting use null mode. (-n switch). 


Spinner is useful for keeping telnet and ssh links from dropping due to 
inactivity. Many firewalls, and some ISPs drop connections when they are 
perceived as idle. By having spinner running the server is constantly sending 
a tiny amount of data over the link, preserving the connection. As of version 
1.2 Spinner can also be activated with the -n switch so that, instead of 
displaying a spinner, it simply sends out a periodic null character to the 
terminal. This achieves the same anti-idle benefit without disturbing your 
screen. But it lacks the coolness factor of a little spinner in the corner of 
the terminal..."

The other I have seen is to set ProtocolKeepAlive n (where n is a number of 
seconds) in ssh_config (system wide in /etc/ssh/ or per user in ~/.ssh/

>
> I'm wondering if mtu might be a problem but I don't see why it should be.

shouldn't be - what adsl connection are you using? 

sometimes adsl is just flaky and will drop connections. you should also look 
at screen so that your session does not disappear. also, as the spinner 
author said, firewalls and routers sometimes drop idle connections, this 
includes some NAT implementations.

>
> I'll have a look at that nocat thing :)
>
> Cheers Don

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