Managing database connections in .NET - Keeping a connection alive

Question

I have a project which heavily relies on a database. Basically, every action in the project requires a query to the database.

The project follows the Three-tier architecture , and at my Data layer I have an SqlConnection instance as a data member for interacting with the database.

The problem is that sometimes the connection is being disconnected for no apparent reason.
My question is, how can I make sure the connection stays alive?
one suggestion I got so far is to send " keep-alive-query " periodically. something like SELECT 1 .

I would also appreciate any insights you have about what may cause this periodical disconnection.

From this SO thread I understand that keeping the connection as a data member might not be the best practice, but this is the current situation, and I would prefer to avoid changing it at this point.

Answer 1

It would be better if you could not keep the connection alive. It's not necessary in modern databases to do that. When you need to access the database, you should open a connection and as soon as you're done, close it.