$col = undef;
    eval 
      {
      local $SIG{ALRM} = sub { warn "ALARM FOR GET EXEC QUERY: \"$query\" L: \"" . __LINE__ . "\" F: \"" . __FILE__ . "\"\n" }; # NB: \n required
      alarm 5;
      $col = $wmicon->ExecQuery($query, "WQL", wbemFlagReturnImmediately | wbemFlagForwardOnly | WbemAuthenticationLevelPkt)
         or $ok = 0;
      alarm 0;
      };
     if($@){ $err = 1; $ret = "timeout while QUERY: \"$query\" wmi on machine $host"; return($err, $ret); }
      else { }  # didn't
    if($ok == 0) { $err = 1; $ret = clean(Win32::OLE->LastError); return($err, $ret); }