up vote 6 down vote favorite

I'm looking for some kind of documentation that specifies how much time each browser (IE6/IE7/FF2/FF3, etc) will wait on a request before it just gives up and times out.

I haven't had any luck trying to get this.

Any pointers?

share|improve this question
feedback

2 Answers

up vote 5 down vote

I managed to find network.http.connect.timeout for much older versions of Mozilla:

This preference was one of several added to allow low-level tweaking of the HTTP networking code. After a portion of the same code was significantly rewritten in 2001, the preference ceased to have any effect (as noted in all.js as early as September 2001).

Currently, the timeout is determined by the system-level connection establishment timeout. Adding a way to configure this value is considered low-priority.

It would seem that network.http.connect.timeout hasn't done anything for some time.

I also saw references to network.http.request.timeout, so I did a Google search. The results include lots of links to people recommending that others include it in about:config in what appears to be a mistaken belief that it actually does something, since the same search turns up this about:config entries article:

Pref removed (unused). Previously: HTTP-specific network timeout. Default value is 120.

The same page includes additional information about network.http.connect.timeout:

Pref removed (unused). Previously: determines how long to wait for a response until registering a timeout. Default value is 30.

Disclaimer: The information on the MozillaZine Knowledge Base may be incorrect, incomplete or out-of-date.

share|improve this answer
Thank you!!! That was very useful! – Daniel Magliola Aug 28 '09 at 1:12
feedback
up vote 0 down vote

firstly I don't think there is just one solution to your problem....

As you know each browser is vastly differant.

But lets see if we can get any closer to the answer you need....

I think IE Might be easy...

Check this link http://support.microsoft.com/kb/181050

For Firefox try this:

Open Firefox, and in the address bar, type "about:config" (without quotes). From there, scroll down to the Network.http.keep-alive and make sure that is set to "true". If it is not, double click it, and it will go from false to true. Now, go one below that to network.http.keep-alive.timeout -- and change that number by double clicking it. if you put in, say, 500 there, you should be good. let us know if this helps at all

share|improve this answer
For Firefox: I tried that, but my understanding is that "keep-alive" is the time that the TCP connection will stay open after the HTTP request comes back, so that if you make another request it'll reuse the connection and avoid the hand-shaking... Is that really the request timeout? – Daniel Magliola Aug 27 '09 at 17:17
feedback

Your Answer

 
or
required, but never shown
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.