# system.net.httpGet() connectTimeout parameter

**URL:** <https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/system-net-httpget-connecttimeout-parameter/69642>\
**Category:** Ignition\
**Tags:** ignition81, scripting\
**Created:** [February 9, 2023, 5:24pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/system-net-httpget-connecttimeout-parameter/69642 "2023-02-09T17:24:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Nikolai\_Wolterstorff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/35a633/32.png) [@Nikolai\_Wolterstorff](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Nikolai_Wolterstorff)\
**Post date:** [February 9, 2023, 5:24pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/system-net-httpget-connecttimeout-parameter/69642/1 "2023-02-09T17:24:58Z")

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Can someone please explain why this code will return "IOError: [www.websitethatdoesntexist.com](http://www.websitethatdoesntexist.com)" immediately instead of waiting 10 seconds and then raising an exception?

```python
import time
import traceback

start_time = time.time()
try:
#	print system.net.httpGet("http://www.google.com") # works
	print system.net.httpGet('http://www.websitethatdoesntexist.com', connectTimeout=10000)
except:
	print traceback.format_exc()
print time.time() - start_time

```

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Kevin.Herron](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/kevin.herron/32/7259_2.png) [@Kevin.Herron](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Kevin.Herron)\
**Post date:** [February 9, 2023, 5:31pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/system-net-httpget-connecttimeout-parameter/69642/2 "2023-02-09T17:31:06Z")

</div>

Because connect timeout is specifically about the maximum time to wait when opening a TCP socket.

Presumably here you're getting some kind of immediate response, either from DNS or the TCP connection being denied, not ignored.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Nikolai\_Wolterstorff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/35a633/32.png) [@Nikolai\_Wolterstorff](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Nikolai_Wolterstorff)\
**Post date:** [February 9, 2023, 5:40pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/system-net-httpget-connecttimeout-parameter/69642/3 "2023-02-09T17:40:14Z")

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Okay, thank you Kevin. I misunderstood connectTimeout. Is there any way to "gracefully" handle this outside of adding logic with retrying the connection in an try/except/sleep loop?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Kevin.Herron](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/kevin.herron/32/7259_2.png) [@Kevin.Herron](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Kevin.Herron)\
**Post date:** [February 9, 2023, 5:41pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/system-net-httpget-connecttimeout-parameter/69642/4 "2023-02-09T17:41:02Z")

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Gracefully handle what? What's the actual problem you're trying to solve?

Also since this is 8.1 you should be using `system.net.httpClient` instead.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Nikolai\_Wolterstorff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/35a633/32.png) [@Nikolai\_Wolterstorff](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Nikolai_Wolterstorff)\
**Post date:** [February 9, 2023, 5:43pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/system-net-httpget-connecttimeout-parameter/69642/5 "2023-02-09T17:43:34Z")

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Doing a GET/POST to some endpoint, but retrying x amount of times if connection fails. Say it's my localhost:8088 Ignition Gateway. If the service is off, it returns an IOError immediately. I initially thought connectTimeout would wait 10 seconds regardless.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Kevin.Herron](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/kevin.herron/32/7259_2.png) [@Kevin.Herron](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Kevin.Herron)\
**Post date:** [February 9, 2023, 5:44pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/system-net-httpget-connecttimeout-parameter/69642/6 "2023-02-09T17:44:13Z")

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What does waiting 10 seconds buy you? Just not having to manage the delay between retries?

You'll have to do it all yourself.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Nikolai\_Wolterstorff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/35a633/32.png) [@Nikolai\_Wolterstorff](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Nikolai_Wolterstorff)\
**Post date:** [February 9, 2023, 5:46pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/system-net-httpget-connecttimeout-parameter/69642/7 "2023-02-09T17:46:56Z")

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Precisely, thank you for clearing this up.