CODEWITHSUNDEEP
websocket
Shai UI
Shai UI

Reputation: 51958

How long can a websocket connection last?

How long can a client be connected to a server via websockets? Is there a time limit, can they potentially be connected together for years?

Upvotes: 29

Views: 21061

Answers (1)

John Zwinck
John Zwinck

Reputation: 249462

A WebSocket connection can in theory last forever. Assuming the endpoints remain up, one common reason why long-lived TCP connections eventually terminate is inactivity. WebSockets have a ping-pong mechanism which among other things can avoid closure by "smart" network routers which often have an inactivity timeout of a few hours. But if your application actively sends data (in either direction) at least once an hour, that's probably enough.

Still, "forever" is unlikely to be achieved in practice, because TCP connections on most networks eventually get terminated by some outage or other. You'll want intelligent reconnection logic if reliability is important.

Upvotes: 34

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