How to fix losing connection with IRC server?

Question

My problem is that I lose IRC connection regularly after 5 to 15 minutes. It does not matter whether I talk or am idle. The number of users in the channels does not make a difference either.

I am completely at a loss with this issue. It happens on every server and with every IRC client I tried. It happens on Windows XP and on Linux.

The only exception is a vmware machine running Windows 2000. That one does not lose connections.

The only slightly meaningful message I saw so far is "connection reset by peer".

Does anyone have any ideas what is happening to me? How can I fix it?

Answer 1

Install Irssi on some remote machine, define all connections there, configure and load Irssi Proxy and Bob’s your uncle.

Answer 2

I would try doing a tcpdump on the machine you are on, and check for a tcp segment sent to you from the server with the RST bit set. This is just one thing to try as that's what the "connection reset by peer" suggests.

Can you do a tcpdump and post the relevant (i.e. filter our irrelevant packets with a tcpdump filter) output here?

Something like...

tcpdump -i ethX -s500 host <irc-server> and host <irc-client> and portrange 6665-6668

Answer 3

If you have a NAT router, it might be dropping the session after a period of time (5 minutes is a common timeout value).

Try bypassing it (bridge it, or plug directly into the uplink) or borrow a different make/model to test.