timeout is a good idea

request timeout pool.js

// In another window, run
//
// $ nc -kl 4200
//
// -k       keepalive (BSD/OSX only)
// -l 4200  listen on port 4200
const requestP = require('request-promise-native');

const now = Date.now();
// never finishes
const defaults = {};
// n = 100, 599 ms
// n = 1000, 1484 ms
const timeout = {
  timeout: 500,
};
// never finishes, gets through three calls every 25 seconds though
const pool = {
  pool: { maxSockets: 5 },
};
// n = 100, 10132 ms
// n = 1000, 100698 ms
const timeoutPool = {
  ...timeout,
  ...pool,
};
const request = requestP.defaults(timeoutPool);

async function main(n = 1000) {
  return Promise.all(new Array(n).fill().map(
    async (x, idx) => {
      try {
        await request.get('http://localhost:4200');
      } catch (err) {
        console.error(idx, Date.now() - now, err.message);
      }
    }));
}

main()
  .then(() => console.log('Finished in %d ms', Date.now() - now))
  .catch(console.error);