I’ve experenced this problem many times on both Ubuntu and Linux Mint, and I’ve had to go research this problem several times each time I encountered it. (I can never remember where to find it.) So, I’m writing it down here in case I ever need it again, or perhaps someone else out on the Net is experiencing this same issue and hasn’t figured out how to fix it.

The problem is that whenever I used SSH to get a remote terminal to another computer, I would occasionally get a long delay before SSH would prompt me for a password. Once I logged in, the connection was very fast, so I knew it wasn’t a network problem. It had to be something related to the servers I was connecting to. This perplexed me for a long time.

After much research, I came across this post, by a fellow with the username “gpowers01”, right close to the bottom:

http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-630623.html

So… I tried it. I added the following line to my local /etc/ssh/ssh_config file:

GSSAPIAuthentication no

… and VIOLA! No more stinking pause. Thank you “gpowers01”!

For the record, I did try the SSH DNS thing that’s mentioned in the post too, but that’s never worked for me. Maybe it’s because my NAT doesn’t suck, but the GSSAPI thing works for me every single time.

So… the next time I go to look for this, I won’t have to go any further then my own blog. And perhaps I may help someone else out too. The Interwebs are cool that way. 😉