diff --git a/Helios/Source/LoginService.cs b/Helios/Source/LoginService.cs
index 3cc92a5b3a76bf572ea83448e0197b3b0208ba8d..c07b5c696e49a20c90d74f070e4f36d072853494 100644
--- a/Helios/Source/LoginService.cs
+++ b/Helios/Source/LoginService.cs
@@ -27,6 +27,8 @@ namespace Helios.Source
 
         private Login GetUserDetails(Login userLogin)
         {
+            _connection.Open();
+
             NpgsqlCommand cmd = new NpgsqlCommand("select * from user_login where email = @emailParam and user_password = @passwordParam", _connection);
 
             cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("@emailParam", userLogin.EmailAddress);
@@ -45,6 +47,8 @@ namespace Helios.Source
                 userLogin.IsAdmin = false;
             }
 
+            _connection.Close();
+
             return userLogin;
         }
     }
diff --git a/Helios/appsettings.json b/Helios/appsettings.json
index aa0ca7ce86d33ad1fddb8c9f97d3e8f1d7900197..3a0bc9a08d36023984720e428338149ae632ad06 100644
--- a/Helios/appsettings.json
+++ b/Helios/appsettings.json
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "ConnectionStrings": {
-    "Default": "User ID=myusername;Password=mypassword;Host=localhost;Port=5432;Database=helios;Pooling=true;Min Pool Size=0;Max Pool Size=100;Connection Lifetime=0;"
+    "Default": "User ID=myusername;Password=mypassword;Host=localhost;Port=5432;Database=helios;"
   },
   "Logging": {
     "LogLevel": {