diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index 4b3ca559b..824b48356 100644
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 Package: mirai
 Type: Package
 Title: Minimalist Async Evaluation Framework for R
-Version: 0.12.0.9007
+Version: 0.12.0.9008
 Description: Lightweight parallel code execution and distributed computing.
     Designed for simplicity, a 'mirai' evaluates an R expression asynchronously,
     on local or network resources, resolving automatically upon completion.
diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index 2cb59875f..a50d30d08 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
-# mirai 0.12.0.9007 (development)
+# mirai 0.12.0.9008 (development)
 
-* Dispatcher sync (and status) timeouts widened to 10s to allow for launching large numbers of daemons.
+* Dispatcher initial sync timeout widened to 10s to allow for launching large numbers of daemons.
 * Default for `ssh_config()` argument 'timeout' widened to 10 (seconds).
 * Fixes `daemons()` specifying 'output = FALSE' registering as TRUE instead.
 * Fixes use of `everywhere()` specifying '.args' as an unnamed list or '.expr' as a language object.
diff --git a/R/daemons.R b/R/daemons.R
index 500445fe0..6365903ff 100644
--- a/R/daemons.R
+++ b/R/daemons.R
@@ -286,7 +286,7 @@ daemons <- function(n, url = NULL, remote = NULL, dispatcher = TRUE, ...,
         urld <- local_url()
         urlc <- strcat(urld, "c")
         sock <- req_socket(urld, resend = 0L)
-        sockc <- req_socket(urlc, resend = 0L)
+        sockc <- socket(protocol = "pair", listen = urlc)
         launch_and_sync_daemon(sock, wa5(urld, dots, n, urlc, url), output, tls, pass) || stop(._[["sync_timeout"]])
         init_monitor(sockc = sockc, envir = envir) || stop(._[["sync_timeout"]])
       } else {
@@ -329,7 +329,7 @@ daemons <- function(n, url = NULL, remote = NULL, dispatcher = TRUE, ...,
       if (dispatcher) {
         sock <- req_socket(urld, resend = 0L)
         urlc <- strcat(urld, "c")
-        sockc <- req_socket(urlc, resend = 0L)
+        sockc <- socket(protocol = "pair", listen = urlc)
         launch_and_sync_daemon(sock, wa4(urld, dots, envir[["stream"]], n, urlc), output) || stop(._[["sync_timeout"]])
         for (i in seq_len(n)) next_stream(envir)
         init_monitor(sockc = sockc, envir = envir) || stop(._[["sync_timeout"]])
@@ -551,11 +551,11 @@ launch_and_sync_daemon <- function(sock, args, output, tls = NULL, pass = NULL)
     }
   }
   launch_daemon(args, output)
-  until(cv, .timelimit)
+  until(cv, .limit_long)
 }
 
 init_monitor <- function(sockc, envir) {
-  res <- query_dispatcher(sockc, command = FALSE, mode = 2L)
+  res <- query_dispatcher(sockc, command = FALSE, mode = 2L, block = .limit_long)
   valid <- !is.object(res)
   if (valid) `[[<-`(`[[<-`(`[[<-`(envir, "sockc", sockc), "urls", res[-1L]), "pid", as.integer(res[1L]))
   valid
diff --git a/R/dispatcher.R b/R/dispatcher.R
index a09e01373..f6cff78d0 100644
--- a/R/dispatcher.R
+++ b/R/dispatcher.R
@@ -139,11 +139,11 @@ dispatcher <- function(host, url = NULL, n = NULL, ..., asyncdial = FALSE,
 
   ctrchannel <- is.character(monitor)
   if (ctrchannel) {
-    sockc <- socket(protocol = "rep")
+    sockc <- socket(protocol = "pair")
     on.exit(reap(sockc), add = TRUE, after = FALSE)
     pipe_notify(sockc, cv = cv, remove = TRUE, flag = TRUE)
     dial_and_sync_socket(sock = sockc, url = monitor, asyncdial = asyncdial)
-    recv(sockc, mode = 6L, block = .timelimit) && stop(._[["sync_timeout"]])
+    recv(sockc, mode = 6L, block = .limit_long) && stop(._[["sync_timeout"]])
     saio <- send_aio(sockc, c(Sys.getpid(), servernames), mode = 2L)
     cmessage <- recv_aio_signal(sockc, cv = cv, mode = 5L)
   }
@@ -324,10 +324,9 @@ get_tls <- function(baseurl, tls, pass) {
 
 sub_real_port <- function(port, url) sub("(?<=:)0(?![^/])", port, url, perl = TRUE)
 
-query_dispatcher <- function(sock, command, mode) {
-  send(sock, data = command, mode = 2L, block = .timelimit)
-  recv(sock, mode = mode, block = .timelimit)
-}
+query_dispatcher <- function(sock, command, mode, block = .limit_short)
+  if (r <- send(sock, data = command, mode = 2L, block = block)) r else
+    recv(sock, mode = mode, block = block)
 
 create_req <- function(ctx, cv)
   list(ctx = ctx, req = recv_aio_signal(ctx, cv = cv, mode = 8L))
diff --git a/R/mirai-package.R b/R/mirai-package.R
index c824e8b67..5f94cb778 100644
--- a/R/mirai-package.R
+++ b/R/mirai-package.R
@@ -143,7 +143,8 @@ registerPromisesMethods <- function(pkgname, pkgpath) {
 )
 
 .intmax <- .Machine[["integer.max"]]
-.timelimit <- 10000L
+.limit_short <- 5000L
+.limit_long <- 10000L
 
 as.promise <- NULL
 recvData <- NULL