diff --git a/include/amqpcpp/libev.h b/include/amqpcpp/libev.h
index 76eea2f..17c6c34 100644
--- a/include/amqpcpp/libev.h
+++ b/include/amqpcpp/libev.h
@@ -255,8 +255,9 @@ private:
                 // the server was inactive for a too long period of time, reset state
                 _next = _expire = 0.0; _timeout = 0;
                 
-                // close the connection because server was inactive
-                return (void)_connection->close();
+                // close the connection because server was inactive (we close it with immediate effect,
+                // because it was inactive so we cannot trust it to respect the AMQP close handshake)
+                return (void)_connection->close(true);
             }
             else if (now >= _next)
             {
@@ -365,8 +366,16 @@ private:
             // because the server has just sent us some data, we will update the expire time too
             _expire = now + _timeout * 1.5;
 
+            // stop the existing timer (we have to stop it and restart it, because ev_timer_set() 
+            // on its own does not change the running timer) (note that we assume that the timer
+            // is already running and keeps on running, so no calls to ev_ref()/en_unref() here)
+            ev_timer_stop(_loop, &_timer);
+
             // find the earliest thing that expires
             ev_timer_set(&_timer, std::min(_next, _expire) - now, 0.0);
+
+            // and start it again
+            ev_timer_start(_loop, &_timer);
             
             // expose the accepted interval
             return _timeout;
diff --git a/src/linux_tcp/tcpresolver.h b/src/linux_tcp/tcpresolver.h
index d4af8de..0b0801c 100644
--- a/src/linux_tcp/tcpresolver.h
+++ b/src/linux_tcp/tcpresolver.h
@@ -120,6 +120,12 @@ private:
 
                 // turn socket into a non-blocking socket and set the close-on-exec bit
                 fcntl(_socket, F_SETFL, O_NONBLOCK | O_CLOEXEC);
+                
+                // we set the 'keepalive' option so that we automatically detect if the peer is dead
+                int keepalive = 1;
+                
+                // set the keepalive option
+                setsockopt(_socket, SOL_SOCKET, SO_KEEPALIVE, &keepalive, sizeof(keepalive));
 
                 // try to connect non-blocking
                 if (connect(_socket, addresses[i]->ai_addr, addresses[i]->ai_addrlen) == 0) break;