How does SQL Server clear up orphaned connections? - 05 Mar 1999

A. A. It doesn't. It never terminates a connection unless it istold to by a user, a KILL command is issued, or the operating system tells itthat the network connection it is using has been disconnected.

How long the operating system takes to kill a network connection, or whetherit is done at all, depends on the net-lib and network protocol used. Forparameters on keep-alive frames and session time-outs for the relevant networkprotocol the best guide is the NT Server resource kit, which describes how NT'svarious networ layers work.

Typically, named-pipe connections over netbeui will be timed out quitequickly, followed by named-pipes over IP. If you're using tcp-ip sockets thenthese sessions aren't timed-out at all by default.