Ubuntu Networking :: Ssh "Connection Reset By Peer" - Write Failed: Broken Pipe

which cropped up today after no changes to the system: I can successfully ssh into my ubuntu 64-bit 9.10 machine (via OS X with iTerm), but after about 30 seconds, the connection drops with the message "Connection reset by peer Connection to xx.xx.xx.xx closed".

If I then try to immediately ssh back in I get: "Write failed: Broken pipe". If I try to immediately ping the machine instead, I cannot ping it until the ~10th try. Eventually I can log back in again, only to be kicked off after between 5 and 60 seconds. I called the network people and their are no known issue right now with networking. The networking on the ubuntu machine is otherwise fine, it seems. In the /var/log/auth.log file, it simple says:

Quote:
Feb 9 14:19:20 harriet sshd[4134]: Accepted password for xxx from xx.xx.xx.xx port 55105 ssh2
Feb 9 14:19:20 harriet sshd[4134]: pam_unix(sshd:session): session opened for user xxx by (uid=0)
Feb 9 14:19:28 harriet sshd[4046]: pam_unix(sshd:session): session closed for user xxx

The solution I come across to a similar problem is to add a "ClientAwakeInterval" number to sshdconfig, but this (as expected) doesn't fix my problem.