If you start renaming API functions, rename all of them for consistency. :)
Agreed, but when changing code on a branch, minimizing code deltas makes merging easier.
Your code disabled idle timeout entirely
Yeah, probably not a good idea. If I had realized that I probably would have just dropped the connection after N failed auth attempts, and chosen N for when it matched the idle timeout. Your solution of clamping the backoff to just under the idle timeout is fine too.
PS -- Today is busy so I'll try to submit the next patches Monday or Tuesday.
