Subject: Re: hangs/multiple servers
From: "Tony Johnson (415) 926 2278" <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Cc: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 18:51 PDT

>I've noticed occasionally that trying to contact an http server that
>seems to be down (at least with ViolaWWW & MidasWWW) will result in
>hangs (or very very long pauses).  Shouldn't a 30-second timeout or
>something similar be in effect at all times?

The way I would like MidasWWW to work is that it would try to connect for about 
2 seconds, after which a dialog box would pop up looking something like:

                  ------------------------------------
                  |    Connecting to XXX.XXX.XXX...  |
                  |                                  |
                  |            -----------           | 
                  |            | Abort!  |           |
                  ------------------------------------

Where you click on abort if you get tired of waiting.

Only problem is that I don't know how to achieve this, since the Unix "connect"
routine I use to connect to the remote server is synchronous. If anyone has
an example of a portable way to asnychronously connect over TCPIP I would be
happy to incoportate it. (In fact I don't even know how to set the timeout
period). 

>Also, is there any way to specify backup servers?  Does anyone else
>think this would be useful?

Yes this would be very useful, especially for the "master indexes" such as 
"academic information" at CERN. Probably not so easy to provide though...

Tony