This parameter determines the interval that separates KeepAlive re-transmissions that occur when an acknowledgement has not been received. After an acknowledgement is received, KeepAliveTime again controls the delay until the next KeepAlive transmission. This stops TCP from inadvertently disconnecting active sessions. The connection is aborted after the number of re-transmissions that are unanswered reaches 5. This is a default value of the TcpMaxDataRetransmissions parameter which is specific to TCP. Its value can be configured via the system registry.
Lowering the value for the KeepAliveInterval speeds up the time it takes to detect that a connection has been dropped. However, if it is set too low, active connections can terminate incorrectly because of latency on the network. Conversely, increasing the value for this parameter will slow down the detection of a dropped connection, but will decrease the likelihood of a connection being terminated incorrectly.
Allowable Values
Length of time in milliseconds
1 – 2147483647
Default Value: 2000
See Also