error conditions

Hi

        I am trying to connect to a computer with ssh. It is a very remote box on a network the we get using a sattelite connection. OpenSSH was installed and was working, we (colleagues of mine and I) could ssh to the box, it just took up to a few seconds to connect. However we started to get "Connection reset by peer" errors, and we no longer got the login prompt, for no apparent reason (we didn't change anything on the box) except it seemed to degrage over time. After trying to ssh unsuccessfully a number of time, now we don't even get error messages. I have to try and figure out what is going on, I am not however an ssh or networking expert.

        We can ping the ip address of the box however which leads me to believe this may not be a purely network problem.           

        One of the causes of this problem is the it is on a distant (in terms of response times) and somewhat unreliable network. How might this affect ssh?

        As far as I know the ssh server should be started and responding, but it isn't.

        The only other cause I can think of may be that the disk on the box is filled by log files, since it has a very small disc (the disc has been full before, but it didn't crash ssh though). If a disk is full will ssh fail if it can't write a key to a file?

        Does anyone have any idea what might be going on? Are there any parameters for ssh I could play with that might improve the situation? Are there any ways I might be able to easily duplicate the problem for testing purpose?

        Any tips or general hints would be appreciated, mentioning useful packages or commands. I can read man pages and am looking through the mailing archive ;^).

		Thanks in advance
			Al
			 

Do you need help?

In addition to our free technical library, Pantek provides professional IT services to companies who utilize Open Source software: Learn more about Pantek's Technical Support offerings Place an order for 24/7/365 Technical Support here Learn more about Pantek, who we are, and what we do Chat with a Live Operator Related securityfocus.com Links bugtraq certification focus-bsd focus-ids focus-ih focus-linux focus-ms focus-sun focus-unix-other focus-virus forensics incidents libnet linux-secnews ms-secnews pen-test secpapers secprog sectools secureshell security-basics securityjobs sf-news vuln-dev webappsec Request more information about Pantek