SSH Daemon readiness problem

I have an old laptop running as a server (It runs Ubuntu Natty).

When I SSH into the box, it often takes a long time to log on, if it's been a while since last time I logged on. I suspect the reason to be that the SSH daemon is put to sleep somehow, and has to be woken before I can log on. Can anyone explain why this happens?

Additional info

Besides SSHD the server runs Transmission Daemon and two Dropbox instances.

I have appended "UseDNS no" to /etc/ssh/sshd_config.

The machine is running a desktop kernel, because I use it as a backup desktop machine as well. Would it help to change it to a server kernel, or would that disable my desktop? I have read that there might be issues with nVidia drivers when running a server kernel, but don't know if this applies on Natty.

Solution 1:

Adding the "-v" parameter to the "ssh" client will give you visible output as to what is going on in the SSH handshake. This will help you identify where it is stalling. One common option to disable on the server is the following in "/etc/ssh/sshd_config"

GSSAPIAuthentication no