If the SSH server you are connecting to has a timeout set in its configuration, it normally disconnects you after some time of inactivity to free up its resources. Adding a simple line of code to your ssh_config or ssh alias can help you stay connected “forever”.

Additionally this post assumes you do not have admin privileges to the ssh server.

Here is the command to connect to the ssh server with a timeout of 30 seconds:

ssh -o ServerAliveInterval=30 -YC4c arcfour,blowfish-cbc user@ssh-server.com

Here the flag ‘-o’ sets the option name to send Alive packages to the server every 30 seconds. The ‘-c’ flag sets some encryption protocol. Read your server side ‘cpuinfo’ to see available protocols:

more /proc/cpuinfo | grep flags

Back to the main topic: The ‘-o’ flag can be added as default in your ssh-config by editing ~/.ssh/config to add the line :

ServerAliveInterval 30

Hope this helps someone.