The variable DEFAULT_TIMEOUT defines the length of time, in seconds, that the runtime or acuserve will wait for a response before timing out. The default value is 25 seconds. Note that some networks have long connect times and, depending on network loading, the default value may not be long enough to allow the application to connect.
Set this configuration variable on the client when you want the client to stop attempting to communicate with the server should the server fail to respond within the specified period. This is particularly helpful when you want to keep the client program from hanging when the server is down or inaccessible. If the timer expires without a response from the server, an error 98,104,10060 is returned to the application. For the mechanism to work, a value must be assigned to the variable before the first file is accessed. If you use AcuServer to get the configuration file from a remote host, you must set DEFAULT_TIMEOUT in the local environment.
On the server, DEFAULT_TIMEOUT allows you to tell acuserve how long to wait for a client to complete a communication that the client has already started. If the timer expires without any further communication from the client, the socket is closed. This allows the server to detect when a client has crashed or disappeared in the middle of a communication. This variable does not help in the situation in which the client crashes or disappears between requests. See Machine Failures for help in detecting dead connections.