What governs timeout?

From: John Ings (nodamned_at_spam.org)
Date: 10/11/04 

Date: Mon, 11 Oct 2004 05:54:42 -0700

Often, when my access to the network is slow, I have to repeat actions
because somewhere in the OS there has been a timeout. I attempt to
post a message to a newsgroup from my newsreader (Agent) and I have to
try half a dozen times before the damn thing gets out. Reading the
morning news at CNN.com I get "this page cannot be displayed"
nastygrams until I've hit the refresh button three times. There don't
seem to be settings in the newsreader or browser for how patiently the
computer will wait for tardy packets, so I presume this is an OS
thing?