Interestinger and interestinger (yes, I know that is horrible English). I managed to get an ethernet switch inserted between my servers and the ATM network and bingo, everything fails gracefully. My suspicion is that since the TCP stack that is used has a set timeout period whereas the ATM network does not, the timeouts built into the SOAP connection are able to be enforced. This type of thing might be why LAN based ATM is on the way out. Just an FYI!