DEAD_CLIENT_TIMEOUT is used in conjunction with the runtime configuration variable AGS_PING_TIME to allow AcuServer to automatically detect when a client hangs or disappears. See Machine Failures for a complete description).
When DEAD_CLIENT_TIMEOUT is set to -1 (the default), the dead client detection mechanism is disabled.
When DEAD_CLIENT_TIMEOUT is set to any other value, the dead client detection mechanism is enabled and the variable's value is interpreted as the interval, in seconds, at which acuserve will analyze its records to detect dead connections.
For example, if DEAD_CLIENT_TIMEOUT is set to 300 (300 seconds = 5 minutes), the dead client detection mechanism is enabled on the server and acuserve analyzes its communication records every five minutes to look for dead connections.