Avoiding SSH delay

# Enable verbose mode in ssh to determine where the hang is

[local-host]$ ssh -v <remote-host>

It will result in the following:

debug1: Reading configuration data /etc/ssh/ssh_config
debug1: Applying options for *
debug1: Connecting to <remote-host> [<remote-IP>] port 22.
debug1: Connection established.
debug1: permanently_set_uid: 0/0
debug1: identity file /root/.ssh/id_rsa type -1
debug1: identity file /root/.ssh/id_dsa type -1
debug1: loaded 2 keys
debug1: Remote protocol version 2.0, remote software version OpenSSH_4.3
debug1: match: OpenSSH_4.3 pat OpenSSH*
debug1: Enabling compatibility mode for protocol 2.0
debug1: Local version string SSH-2.0-OpenSSH_4.3
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT sent
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT received
debug1: kex: server->client <port1> <port2> none
debug1: kex: client->server <port1> <port2> none
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEX_DH_GEX_REQUEST(1024<2048<8192) sent
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_KEX_DH_GEX_GROUP
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEX_DH_GEX_INIT sent
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_KEX_DH_GEX_REPLY
debug1: Host '<remote-host>' is known and matches the RSA host key.
debug1: Found key in /root/.ssh/known_hosts:33
debug1: ssh_rsa_verify: signature correct
debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS sent
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS
debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS received
debug1: SSH2_MSG_SERVICE_REQUEST sent
debug1: SSH2_MSG_SERVICE_ACCEPT received
debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey,password
debug1: Next authentication method: publickey
debug1: Trying private key: /root/.ssh/id_rsa
debug1: Trying private key: /root/.ssh/id_dsa
debug1: Next authentication method: password
root@<remote-host>'s password:

Sometimes the ssh appears to hang / wait for a while at the line in bold above. It is usually due to the UseDNS - default is yes. Disabling it and restarting sshd on the remote-host should fix this delay in ssh:

Add the following line in bold to /etc/ssh/sshd_config on remote-host:

#      UseDNS  Specifies whether sshd should look up the remote host name and
#      check that the resolved host name for the remote IP address maps
#      back to the very same IP address.The default is "yes".
UseDNS no

Restart sshd on the remote-host:

[remote-host]$ service sshd restart