Paramiko ssh_config parameters
ssh -o ServerAliveInterval=1 -o ServerAliveCountMax=1 <host>

>>> import paramiko
>>> client = paramiko.SSHClient()
>>> client.load_system_host_keys()
>>> client.connect(hostname='localhost', port=22, username='user', password='****', timeout=5.0)
>>> sftp = paramiko.SFTPClient.from_transport(client.get_transport())
>>> dirlist = sftp.listdir('.')

>>> import paramiko
>>> client = paramiko.SSHClient()
>>> client.load_system_host_keys()
>>> client.connect(hostname='slowhost', username='user', password='****', timeout=1.0)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/paramiko/client.py", line 296, in connect
    sock.connect(addr)
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/socket.py", line 222, in meth
    return getattr(self._sock,name)(*args)
socket.timeout: timed out