In networking, a Keepalive Signal is used to accomplish what?

• A. Verify a link is active
• B. Establish a new connection
• C. Encrypt traffic
• D. Break a connection

Answer: (A)

Keepalive signals verify that a previously established connection is still active. They send periodic, lightweight probes when there’s little to no data flowing, and the other end responds to confirm the link is alive. If these probes go unanswered after a set number of attempts, the connection is considered dead and can be closed or reset, which helps free resources and detect failures. This also helps maintain state in devices like routers, firewalls, and NATs that might drop idle connections. It’s not about creating a new connection, nor about encrypting traffic, and it’s not intended to break a connection—the purpose is to detect and prevent silent failures by confirming the path remains reachable.