# connection to host lost

**URL:** https://community.unix.com/t/connection-to-host-lost/138600
**Category:** UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers
**Created:** [April 25, 2001, 3:00am UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/connection-to-host-lost/138600 "2001-04-25T03:00:30Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![nbiketi](https://community.unix.com/letter_avatar/nbiketi/32/5_5575768a8748004e209b776fc1b2916d.png) [@nbiketi](https://community.unix.com/u/nbiketi)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2001, 3:00am UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/connection-to-host-lost/138600/1 "2001-04-25T03:00:30Z")

</div>

Hi all,

I am connecting to a unix host from NT workstation via telnet. After working for around two hours I get the message "connection to host lost" What could the problem be?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Neo](https://community.unix.com/user_avatar/community.unix.com/neo/32/22838_2.png) [@Neo](https://community.unix.com/u/Neo)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2001, 11:45am UTC](https://community.unix.com/t/connection-to-host-lost/138600/2 "2001-04-25T11:45:15Z")

</div>

TCP/IP connections use keep-alive signals to keep the connection open. Some client implementations of TCP/IP do not generate these signals properly and the connection die. There are other reasons that connections die too. Anytime the keep-alive signals are not (1) generated or (2) received, idle connection will time-out.