WinSCP’s "Network error: Software caused connection abort" Message is Driving Me Crazy!

WinSCP is by far and away the best SCP/SFTP client for Windows users, but the default settings don’t use keepalive, so you get disconnected far too often. I like to leave the client open while I’m doing work, and this causes a serious problem with my workflow.

Note: if you haven’t switched to using SCP or SFTP to transfer files instead of regular insecure FTP, you should really do so.

This messagebox needs to go away!

To change this setting, you’ll have to modify your saved connections in the WinSCP Login screen.

Select “Connection” in the left-hand treeview, and then change the “Keepalives” radio button to “Executing dummy protocol commands”.

You could also use the option for “Sending of null SSH packets”, but not all servers support that option, and we want that error message to go away.

Make sure you click the Save button after you are done.

Download the awesome WinSCP client

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This article was originally written on 10/19/07 Tagged with: Geek Stuff

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Comments (3)

1. October 20, 2007 7:58 am
   Bryan

   Hey, a lot of the times this error is also caused by the host system’s terminal settings. Depending on the host type, OS, and settings, find your profile, such as ~/.bash_login and look for this line ”
   “mesg y” and comment it out. If you don’t see it there, it may be a system-wide setting, in which case you may have to override it in your local settings or ask the administrators to change it for you.
   “mesg y” says that your terminal can receive system-wide messages, and in the case of an scp/ssh connection, you don’t want that. Hope this helps too!

2. May 28, 2008 9:52 pm
   Jason

   Thanks for this GREAT and USEFUL tip! It’s surprising that I couldn’t even find this information on WinSCP’s own website! You saved me a hours of work!

   Thanks again!

3. January 20, 2009 8:02 am
   Leigh anne

   Where do I find this file?
   Depending on the host type, OS, and settings, find your profile, such as ~/.bash_login and look for this line

   I’m getting the “Network error: Software caused connection abort” error message for the first time this morning. I don’t know anything about re-keying and I’m so confused. Can anyone help me?