A method and system for establishing and maintaining a connection in a client/server environment is disclosed. A client requests a connection from a server, and the client and server negotiate environment options to establish the connection including a recovery location comprising, in one example, an IP address and port. The server stores the recovery location received from the client in a recovery information file. In response to losing the connection with the server, the client checks the recovery location for a recovery notification sent by the server. When the server is re-started, a recovery notification is sent by the server to the recovery location that was stored in the recovery information file. The client receives this recovery notification, and the connection between the client and the server is re-established without the need for the client to query the server.