timeout

timeout

In communications, the intentional ending of an incomplete task. If an acknowledgment, carrier, logon, etc., has not occurred in a specified amount of time, the timeout ends the waiting loop so that the request can be retransmitted or the process terminated. Timeouts are common in communications applications in order to free up a line or port that is tied up with a request that has not been answered in a reasonable amount of time. For each type of situation, there is a default length of time before the timeout is initiated, which typically can be adjusted by the user or network administrator. See tickle packet.

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timeout - A period of time after which an error condition is raised if some event has not occured. A common example is sending a message. If the receiver does not acknowledge the message within some preset timeout period, a transmission error is assumed to have occured.