I'm trying to design a ssh client that establishes a connection that it persistent until I close it so that I can use it for constant bi-directional communication. I want it to act like a shell with a gui top of it (wxPython). I think I need to keep a channel open continuously to effect this. This is my first attempt at using ssh so I'm probably missing some important paradigms here, please fill me in if possible. I grabbed the the sshsimpleclient.py code from http://twistedmatrix.com/projects/conch/documentation/examples/sshsimpleclie... and modified (to test the behavior): def closed(self): print 'got data from cat: %s' % repr(self.data) #self.loseConnection() #reactor.stop() The server connection still closes as soon as I receive the callback data. I'm using freebsd and it works as advertised (I see the connection in auth.log but of course, its closed before I can 'who' and check it out) Any advice on the right way to get started would be appreciated! -John