I've tried changing the timeout values in my user agent initialization, but it's not quite good enough.

How is it "not quite good enough?" What would you like to change?

this script needs to get on with life if the proxy isn't responding.

What do you mean by "get on with life?" Do you want it to try another server? Avoid the proxy? Return an error to the user?

-sauoq
"My two cents aren't worth a dime.";