Solved SSHD timeout

balanga · Monday at 4:27 PM

Are there any settings within sshd which set a timeout period?

I have recently taken on a VPS and find that the SSH sesssion gets an 'operation timeout' after some undetermined time and wondered what sets this timeout period.

kent_dorfman766 · Monday at 7:46 PM

read the manpage for the sshd configuration file...you will find what you need.

balanga · Monday at 8:39 PM

kent_dorfman766 said:
read the manpage for the sshd configuration file...you will find what you need.

I see some mention of ChannelTimeout in the man pages, but don't see any mention of it in sshd_config, so don't know where to look.

ShelLuser · Monday at 9:09 PM

There are settings, but they're not necessarily called timeout but rather grace time. I think you're looking for LoginGraceTime (which is mentioned in /etc/ssh/sshd_config by default btw).

hruodr · Monday at 9:28 PM

balanga said:
Are there any settings within sshd which set a timeout period?

Put file ~/.ssh/config in your client (local computer) with:

Host *
ServerAliveInterval 60

Then the connection will not interrupt.

balanga · Monday at 9:32 PM

ShelLuser said:
There are settings, but they're not necessarily called timeout but rather grace time. I think you're looking for LoginGraceTime (which is mentioned in /etc/ssh/sshd_config by default btw).

I think this setting is the time allowed to get authenticated whilst logging in.

balanga · Monday at 9:39 PM

hruodr said:
Put file ~/.ssh/config in your client (local computer) with:

Then the connection will not interrupt.# cat /root/.ssh/config │

Like this?

# cat /root/.ssh/config │

Host * │
ServerAliveInterval 60

hruodr · Monday at 10:21 PM

balanga said:
Like this?

Without "|", just the two lines with "Host *" and "ServerAliveInterval 60" (and without "").
Somewhere in the man pages is documented.
I do not remember, you can ask AI where.

kent_dorfman766 · 2026-07-28T16:36:20+0100

Nevermind previous...I didn't read carefully before going off on a tangent. Either config can work: ServerAliveInterval if you decide to configure the client, or ChannelTimeout if you decide to globally configure it on the server.

hruodr · 2026-07-28T17:35:12+0100

kent_dorfman766 said:
Nevermind previous...I didn't read carefully before going off on a tangent. Either config can work: ServerAliveInterval if you decide to configure the client, or ChannelTimeout if you decide to globally configure it on the server.

They are for different kind of personalities.

The one for those that adapt to the surroundings, the other for those that adapt the surroundings.