If you’re constantly connected to multiple servers via SSH and perform work on them throughout the day, dealing with timeouts can be cumbersome. Here’s how you can keep the connection alive.

Create a config file in your home’s .ssh directory:

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$ vi ~/.ssh/config

$ vi ~/.ssh/config

Add the following by pressing the letter i, typing in the text below, and pressing ESC followed by :wq:

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ServerAliveInterval 60

ServerAliveInterval 60

Every 60 seconds a packet will be sent to keep the connection alive.

Lastly, modify the config file so that it’s read-only to you:

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$ chmod 600 ~/.ssh/config

$ chmod 600 ~/.ssh/config

From here on out, no more timeouts.