[c-nsp] Low activity systems lose net connectivity

[Phil Mayers]

Tauren Mills wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I have a very simple network with about 5 linux servers, a cisco
> 3500XL switch and a 2600 router.
> 
> There is a problem with servers that have very little or no traffic.
> The network interfaces on the low traffic servers seems to become
> non-response after a very short period of time (as low at 15 seconds
> of inactivity), and then existing connections timeout (such as SSH
> sessions).

There is a pretty common problem where FDB entries expire after 300 
seconds but the default ARP aging time on Ciscos is (massively, 
inexplicably) 4 hours.

Try "arp timeout 300" on the routers IP interface.