If two SHIP nodes that already have successfully established a connection before, both nodes can reconnect to each other at any time. It does not matter if the register flag is "true" or "false" during reconnection, the register flag is only important for the registration process when connecting to new SHIP nodes.

If the public key still matches the previously provided (during registration), verified and trusted public key, the SHIP node SHALL be accepted again without any delay.

A reconnection between a SHIP node and a web server is established in the following order:

1. Retrieve IP and port from DNS (Only if URL is used, if IP is used this step can be skipped)
2. Connect to IP and port
3. Check if the public key of the communication partner is still the same like during registration
4. SHIP message exchange (SME)

A reconnection with local SHIP nodes is typically established in the following order:

1. Connect to IP and port retrieved over service discovery OR accept incoming connection
2. Check if the public key of the communication partner is still the same like during registration
3. SHIP message exchange (SME)

In the reconnection scenario, both SHIP nodes should already trust each other , so no user interaction is necessary. With the SME "hello" message a SHIP node can directly confirm the trustworthiness of the communication partner and continue with SME protocol handshake, optional PIN verification and data exchange.