Client timeouts#

Client timeouts, also called idle timeouts, occur when Relay disconnects a client from a Relay server due to inactivity. The default time to live (TTL) before Relay disconnects a client is 10 seconds. The disconnect TTL is 60 seconds when the host is alone (after the BIND message but before a peer connects to them with a CONNECT message).

A timeout (controlled by a TTL value) is a mechanism that limits the lifetime of idle connections to a Relay server. Relay uses a TTL to decide when a client times out from lack of network activity. Because some game types might have a low message rate, such as turn-based strategy games, you might need to configure the game client to send PING messages to the Relay server to keep the connection alive to prevent a timeout. The PING message resets the idle timeout for a player connection.

When an allocation expires through a client timeout, the Allocations service removes the allocation from the Relay server, which sends the client a timeout error message.