WinSecWiki > Security Settings > Local Policies > Security Options > Microsoft Network Server > Amount of idle time required before suspending session
Microsoft network server: Amount of idle time required before suspending session
By default Windows SMB (e.g. file sharing) servers suspend idle connections after a default of 15 minutes. For instance, a user opens a Word document in a shared folder on a file server which causes his workstation to establish a network logon to the server. (This records a logon event on the file server security log.) The user closes the first file and then accesses a few others. Eventually the user closes all files on the server and has no other activity over the SMB session. After 15 minutes the server closes the connection and records a logout event in its security log. When the user next attempts to access the file server, the workstation realizes the SMB session has been closed and logs the user on to the server again.
This setting allows you to increase or decrease the amount of idle time that must elapse before the server closes the connection. You can configure this setting anywhere between 0 and 99999 with zero meaning “disconnect as soon as reasonably possible” and 99999 meaning 208 days or effectively disabled. The actual unit of measure apparently translates to 3 minutes since (208*24*60)/3 = 99999 approximately. I know, don’t ask me.
Bottom line
Leave this setting at its default unless you are interested in reducing the false logon and logoff events in file server logs that result from this behavior. Increasing this setting could conceivably create a greater load on the file server since it must maintain more active sessions.
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