Maximum segment lifetime is the time a TCP segment can exist in the internetwork system. It is arbitrarily defined to be 2 minutes long.
The Maximum Segment Lifetime value is used to determine the TIME_WAIT interval (2*MSL)
The command that can be used to many Unix systems determine the TIME_WAIT interval is:
ndd -get /dev/tcp tcp_time_wait_interval60000 (60 seconds) is a common value.
On most linux systems, this value can be checked by the command below:
sysctl net.ipv4.tcp_fin_timeoutOr simply view the file in /proc:
cat /proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_fin_timeoutFamous quotes containing the words maximum and/or lifetime:
“I had a quick grasp of the secret to sanity—it had become the ability to hold the maximum of impossible combinations in one’s mind.”
—Norman Mailer (b. 1923)
“The mystic purchases a moment of exhilaration with a lifetime of confusion; and the confusion is infectious and destructive. It is confusing and destructive to try and explain anything in terms of anything else, poetry in terms of psychology.”
—Basil Bunting (1900–1985)