Copied from http://fatlabmusic.com/blog/2009/08/12/how-to-fix-wp-http-error-name-lookup-timed-out/ //adjustments to wp-includes/http.php timeout values to workaround slow server responses
add_filter('http_request_args', 'bal_http_request_args', 100, 1);
function bal_http_request_args($r) //called on line 237
{
$r['timeout'] = 15;
return $r;
}
add_action('http_api_curl', 'bal_http_api_curl', 100, 1);
function bal_http_api_curl($handle) //called on line 1315
{
curl_setopt( $handle, CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT, 15 );
curl_setopt( $handle, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, 15 );
}