Keep a tunnel to a proxy server open on a dodgy shared Internet connection

gistfile1.sh

#!/bin/bash

connect() {
    ssh proxyserver -fN
}

disconnect() {
    kill -n 9 $(pgrep -f "ssh proxyserver -fN") 2>/dev/null
}

reconnect() {
    disconnect
    connect
}

is_disconnected() {
    nc -z localhost 5000
    echo $?
    return $?
}

while true; do
    is_disconnected && reconnect
    sleep 5;
done 1>/dev/null 2>/dev/null &