diff --git a/docs/src/tcp.rst b/docs/src/tcp.rst
index bcb163ea..3cc8efaa 100644
--- a/docs/src/tcp.rst
+++ b/docs/src/tcp.rst
@@ -60,6 +60,11 @@ API
     Enable / disable TCP keep-alive. `delay` is the initial delay in seconds,
     ignored when `enable` is zero.
 
+    After `delay` has been reached, 10 successive probes, each spaced 1 second
+    from the previous one, will still happen. If the connection is still lost
+    at the end of this procedure, then the handle is destroyed with a
+    ``UV_ETIMEDOUT`` error passed to the corresponding callback.
+
 .. c:function:: int uv_tcp_simultaneous_accepts(uv_tcp_t* handle, int enable)
 
     Enable / disable simultaneous asynchronous accept requests that are
diff --git a/src/unix/tcp.c b/src/unix/tcp.c
index fa660f13..d47e9433 100644
--- a/src/unix/tcp.c
+++ b/src/unix/tcp.c
@@ -379,8 +379,16 @@ int uv__tcp_keepalive(int fd, int on, unsigned int delay) {
     return UV__ERR(errno);
 
 #ifdef TCP_KEEPIDLE
-  if (on && setsockopt(fd, IPPROTO_TCP, TCP_KEEPIDLE, &delay, sizeof(delay)))
-    return UV__ERR(errno);
+  if (on) {
+    int intvl = 1;  /*  1 second; same as default on Win32 */
+    int cnt = 10;  /* 10 retries; same as hardcoded on Win32 */
+    if (setsockopt(fd, IPPROTO_TCP, TCP_KEEPIDLE, &delay, sizeof(delay)))
+      return UV__ERR(errno);
+    if (setsockopt(fd, IPPROTO_TCP, TCP_KEEPINTVL, &intvl, sizeof(intvl)))
+      return UV__ERR(errno);
+    if (setsockopt(fd, IPPROTO_TCP, TCP_KEEPCNT, &cnt, sizeof(cnt)))
+      return UV__ERR(errno);
+  }
 #endif
 
   /* Solaris/SmartOS, if you don't support keep-alive,