But that doesn't get around the problem of my ssh sessions being defunct or closed ("broken pipe").
Is this because of a NAT entry in your home router timing out from being idle?
Hard to tell. There seem to be also network problems at the other end (corporate network), where ssh connections on that network get closed as well.
You can prevent this by configuring SSH are-you-there messages from either or both ends.
I only have control over these parameters at my end.
See the ServerAliveInterval and ServerAliveCountMax options in ssh_config(5), or ClientAliveInterval and ClientAliveCountMax in sshd_config(5). Both ends also have TCPKeepAlive, but note that is sent unencrypted.
These options are supposed to be for detecting broken connections, but they will also reset router idle timers.
Will see whether these options alleviate the problem. Thanks! Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/