Keepalive packets transmitted by default

[Aaron Jones]

On 12/10/2021 13:52, Gert Mertes wrote:
> Hi,
>
> My Windows client (0.4.11) will still sporadically send (and receive)
> keepalive packets over an idle tunnel, even though PersistentKeepalive
> is not set in the config of any peer in the tunnel. Explicitly setting
> it to 0 also has the same result. I’m wondering if (i) the above is
> expected behaviour and (ii) is it possible to completely disable
> keepalive packets?
>
> Thanks,
> Gert

This is the expected behaviour, and it is not possible to disable it.

It's occurring because there is a unidirectional data transfer happening
(e.g. UDP), and the other side is responding with the keepalive because
it hasn't already done so recently (like it would with e.g. a TCP ACK)
and has nothing to send.

The reasons are described in sections 6.2 and 6.5 of the WireGuard
whitepaper.


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