> > 2) there should be some way to run with *infinite* MAXIDLE/KEEPCNT,
> > so that only a RST from the peer (an affirmative indication the other
> > end of the connection is gone) will cause connections to close.
> 
> This sounds as though you're asking for a way to disable keepalives
> even for connections that have had them specifically requested.  

No.  I'm looking for a way to recover from the followinng sequence of events:

      - connection goes idle
      - network fails
      - peer fails/discards connection
      - wait a very long time
      - network comes back.

without *forcing* a connection to be lost in the following case:

      - connection goes idle
      - network fails
      - wait a very long time
      - network comes back.

> And even then, I thought that once it heard back, it reset the long
> timer, not just the short one, so that your ten-minute outage would
> have to strike during a ten minute interval every two hours.

yup, you're right about this, but I don't think this much weakens my
argument.

				     - Bill