What Is A Timeout?

What Is A Timeout

Date First Published: 2nd June 2022

Topic: Computer Networking

Subtopic: Network Services

Difficulty Level: 3/10

Computer Terms & Definitions

Difficulty: Easy

Learn more about what a timeout is in this article.

A timeout, also spelt time-out, occurs when a user makes a request that takes longer than a server or network was preparing to wait. The purpose of a timeout error is to prevent servers or devices from continuously waiting for a response for an excessive length of time, based on the assumption that any additional waiting is unnecessary and it is best to close the connection.

For example, connections to FTP servers time out if the FTP server does not respond within a certain interval, usually 300 seconds. In addition, if you typed a URL into your web browser to a website that does not exist, the DNS lookup will fail and the connection will eventually timeout to prevent the web browser from permanently waiting for a response from the web server. The HTTP status code 408 indicates that the request was timed out due to the client making a request that took longer than the server was prepared to wait.


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