Connection Timeout Errors: ETIMEDOUT Causes and Fixes

What It Means

A connection timeout occurs when a client waits too long for a server to respond. The server either didn't receive the request, is too slow to respond, or network issues are dropping packets.

# Browser error
ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT

# Node.js
Error: connect ETIMEDOUT 203.0.113.50:443

# curl
curl: (28) Connection timed out after 30001 milliseconds

# Python
socket.timeout: timed out

Types of Timeouts

Type	Description
Connection timeout	TCP handshake didn't complete in time
Read timeout	Connected but response took too long
Socket timeout	General network operation timeout
Request timeout	Total time for complete request

Common Causes

Server unreachable: Server is down or IP is wrong
Firewall dropping packets: Silent drop instead of reject
Network congestion: Packets lost in transit
Server overloaded: Can't process requests fast enough
Routing issues: Packets can't reach destination
DNS pointing to wrong IP: Old IP that's no longer valid

Diagnosing the Issue

# Test basic connectivity
ping example.com
ping -c 4 203.0.113.50

# Trace the network path
traceroute example.com
mtr example.com

# Test TCP connection to specific port
nc -zv -w 5 example.com 443
telnet example.com 443

# Test with timeout
curl -v --connect-timeout 5 https://example.com

# Check where packets are dropping
sudo tcpdump -i any host example.com

# Test from different locations
# Use online tools like check-host.net

Timeout vs Connection Refused

Timeout: No response at all (packets dropped, server unreachable)
Connection Refused: Server actively rejects connection (fast RST response)

Timeout = silence. Connection refused = active rejection.

Firewall Rules

Firewalls often DROP packets silently instead of rejecting them, causing timeouts.

# Check if firewall is blocking outbound
sudo iptables -L OUTPUT -n

# Check cloud provider security groups
# AWS: Check inbound rules in Security Groups
# GCP: Check Firewall rules
# Azure: Check Network Security Groups

# Test if specific port is blocked
curl -v --connect-timeout 5 https://example.com:443
curl -v --connect-timeout 5 http://example.com:80

# If one works and the other doesn't,
# it's likely a port-specific firewall rule

Setting Appropriate Timeouts

Node.js / JavaScript

// fetch with timeout
const controller = new AbortController();
const timeoutId = setTimeout(() => controller.abort(), 5000);

const response = await fetch(url, { signal: controller.signal });
clearTimeout(timeoutId);

// axios
axios.get(url, { timeout: 5000 });

// http module
http.request(options, callback).setTimeout(5000);

Python

# requests
requests.get(url, timeout=(3.05, 27))  # (connect, read)

# urllib
urllib.request.urlopen(url, timeout=10)

curl

# Connection timeout only
curl --connect-timeout 5 https://example.com

# Total timeout (including transfer)
curl --max-time 30 https://example.com

# Both
curl --connect-timeout 5 --max-time 30 https://example.com

Server-Side Configuration

# Nginx - increase timeouts for slow backends
proxy_connect_timeout 60s;
proxy_read_timeout 60s;
proxy_send_timeout 60s;

# Apache
Timeout 60
ProxyTimeout 60

# Node.js
server.timeout = 60000;  // 60 seconds
server.keepAliveTimeout = 5000;

Quick Fixes

Verify the IP is correct: dig example.com
Check firewall rules: Ensure port is open in security groups
Test from multiple locations: Determine if it's regional
Check server load: CPU, memory, network saturation
Increase timeout values: If server is legitimately slow
Add retries: Network issues can be transient

Connection Timeout Errors