REST API request duration

[emizzle]

There is currently a timeout set for a pending block retrieval to 5 minutes. A consumer of the REST api may have to wait 5 minutes before getting a response for /download, which could be a block or a timeout. When the DHT is implemented, this may take even longer. Is waiting 5 minutes for a response acceptable? Should we consider alternative approaches, such as websockets?

[michaelsbradleyjr]

Another thing to consider is that the default http request timeout on the client-side varies by client. For some clients that timeout is configurable, but for some it's not.