Java: Reasonable timeout period for URLConnection

Question

By default the timeout for URLConnection is 0 which is unlimited. What is a reasonable value for XXXXX?

URL url = ...
URLConnection uCon = url.openConnection();
uCon.setConnectTimeout(XXXXXX);

Answer 1

It entirely depends on your business logic. How long do you want your program to wait before it decides that it will just give up, rather than wait?

("Maybe if I just wait a little longer, then it'll connect!")

Answer 2

Anything is reasonable. Depending on the latency, on the target page. etc. Let's say 30 seconds.