Bug #84899 in openssh (Ubuntu): “SSH with GSSAPIAuthentication option on SSH servers are very slow”

Bug #84899 in openssh (Ubuntu): “SSH with GSSAPIAuthentication option on SSH servers are very slow”

I was connecting to a sshd on a Debian Etch which ran on the same machine under VMWare.
The guest OS has a 192.168.x.y type IP (dhcp from VMWare) on a separate virtual interface.

I applied William's solution (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/openssh/+bug/84899/comments/22).

In /etc/nsswitch.conf, I replaced :

hosts: files mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] dns mdns4

with

hosts: files dns

From 5-10 seconds I now get less than one second wait time before the password prompt is shown.

No other edits to ssh_config were needed.