Is there a way to set a default timeout value, like say 20 secs, to wait for a response before it goes on to the next machine.

Found in perlfaq8:

How do I timeout a slow event?
Use the alarm() function, probably in conjunction with a signal handler, as documented in "Signals" in perlipc and the section on "Signals" in the Camel. You may instead use the more flexible Sys::AlarmCall module available from CPAN.

MulletRay--.
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