putty ssh connection is unstable and keep getting disconnected

I just launched a EC2 instance CentOS on Amazon Web Services (AWS). I have experienced the unstable ssh connection.

Network error: Software caused connection abort

Write failed: Broken pipe

Solution 1 (use this):

# vim /etc/ssh/sshd_config

TCPKeepAlive yes

Note: TCPKeepAlive - Specifies whether the system should send TCP keepalive messages to the other side. If they are sent, death of the connection or crash of one of the machines will be properly noticed. However, this means that connections will die if the route is down temporarily, and some people find it annoying (The default is 'yes').

Note: ServerAliveInterval - Sets a timeout interval in seconds after which if no data has been received from the server, ssh(1) will send a message through the encrypted channel to request a response from the server. The default is 0, indicating that these messages will not be sent to the server.

Note: ClientAliveCountMax – This indicates the total number of checkalive message sent by the ssh server without getting any response from the ssh client. Default is 3.

Note: ClientAliveInterval – This indicates the timeout in seconds. After x number of seconds, ssh server will send a message to the client asking for response. Deafult is 0 (server will not send message to client to check.).

Solution 2:

Mosh (mobile shell) Remote terminal application that allows roaming, supports intermittent connectivity, and provides intelligent local echo and line editing of user keystrokes.

Mosh is a replacement for SSH. It's more robust and responsive, especially over Wi-Fi, cellular, and long-distance links.

Mosh is free software, available for GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, Mac OS X, and Android.

https://mosh.mit.edu/

Solution 3:

Client configuration

Try creating the file:

~/.ssh/config
Add the contents:

Host *
ServerAliveInterval 30
ServerAliveCountMax 5

Now ssh to your server and see if your problem is fixed. ClientAliveInterval option is only useful when configuring the ssh server (aka sshd), it does not change a thing on the ssh client side, so don't use it in the above configuration file.

This will send a hello-are-you-there signal to the server if no packets have been received in the preceding 30 seconds (as specified above). However, if the number of consecutive hello-are-you-there signals reach ServerAliveCountMax then ssh will disconnect from the server. This value is defaulting to 3 (so 3*30 = 90 seconds without server activity), increase it if it suits your needs. There are alot more config options to the .ssh/config file and you could read:

Using an SSH Config File

For more information on other options. You may not want to apply this to every server you connect to which this example will. Or restrain it to only a particular server by replacing the line Host * with Host (replace by an IP address, see ssh_config man page).

Server configuration

Similarly you can tell the server to be gentle with your clients. The configuration file is /etc/ssh/sshd_config.

ClientAliveInterval 20
ClientAliveMaxCount 5

You can either deactivate it by setting ClientAliveInterval to 0 or tweak ClientAliveInterval and ClientAliveMaxCount to set a maximum ssh client inactivity without responding to the probes. One advantage of this settings over TCPKeepAlive is that the signals are sent through the encrypted channels, so it is less likely to be spoofable.

http://askubuntu.com/questions/127369/how-to-prevent-write-failed-broken-pipe-on-ssh-connection
http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/3026/what-do-the-options-serveraliveinterval-and-clientaliveinterval-in-sshd-conf