REBOL3 upgrade and chat timeout over low bandwidth (GPRS)

I'm working more and more from GPRS in exchange for enjoying a tranquil life in the Thai jungle.

It magnifies the pain of today's complexities though. I have to watch my network usage regularly because there is always some band-hungry process having its breakfast-lunch-dinner during im trying to chat with some server in the US thru SSH.

I had a persistent problem with R3 over GPRS, independent of the platform. Both the upgrade and the chat functionality threw me a network error. Sometimes even on a 50kB/s 3G connection in Singapore.

I read about the timeout setting on the http://www.rebol.com/r3/docs/concepts/protocols-setup.html and with a little adoption to R3 it solved my problem. See the example console transcripts below.

The trick is to set the default 15 (seconds?) HTTP timeout to a lot higher with the system/schemes/http/spec/timeout: 300 command

chat

>> chat
Fetching chat...
Script: "RebDev Command Line Interface" Version: 0.4.24 Date: 13-Feb-2010
0 message records
 
Alerts:
--- Note: no messages
 
Top headings:
--- Note: no messages
 
Hint: n = new messages, who = users online, ? = help, ?? = list commands.
--- Note: Not logged in. Use LOGIN or NEW-USER.
 
*off-line* guest:(no topic)>> login onetom
Password? **********
--- Note: login initiated
--- Note: fetching user list
--- Note: checking for new messages
--- Note: many messages - this may take time...
*** RebDev Error: server connection failed, is server down? (server-failed)
 
onetom:(no topic)>> q
>> system/schemes/http/spec/timeout: 300
== 300
 
>> chat                                  
Fetching chat...
Script: "RebDev Command Line Interface" Version: 0.4.24 Date: 13-Feb-2010
--- Note: login initiated
--- Note: fetching user list
--- Note: checking for new messages
--- Note: many messages - this may take time...
--- Note: updating messages:  1000
--- Note: updating messages:  2000
--- Note: updating messages:  3000
--- Note: updating messages:  4000
--- Note: updating messages:  5000
--- Note: updating messages:  6000
--- Note: updating messages:  7000
--- Note: updating messages:  7053
--- Note: there are new messages
7053 message records
 
Alerts:
   141 ! Enter 140 for chat about chat.               140 Carl     13-Jan-2009
  6945 ! ATTENTION: There was a problem with this s   118 Carl     12-Feb     
  6959 ! MOVING THIS DEVBASE SERVER... I hope to sp   118 Carl     13-Feb     
 
Top headings:
     2 H Server admin                                   0 admin    2d ago     
     4 H User messages                                  0 admin    2d ago     
     5 H General                                        0 BrianH   33m ago    
    14 H R3                                             0 dimwit   2d ago     
    15 H R2                                             0 Carl     4-Mar      
    16 H Tools                                          0 DideC    1-Mar      
    17 H Websites                                       0 Carl     6d ago     
>   18 H Community                                      0 Carl     25-Feb     
 
Hint: n = new messages, who = users online, ? = help, ?? = list commands.
 
onetom:(no topic)>>

upgrade

>> upgrade
Fetching upgrade check ...
Script: "REBOL 3.0 Version Upgrade" Version: 1.0.1 Date: 7-Apr-2009
Checking for updates...

R3 current version: 2.100.97.2.5 
It was released on: 9-Feb-2010/21:48:15 

You need to update R3.
Download new release? y
Downloading 2.100.97.2.5 ...
** Access error: protocol error: "Timeout"

>> system/schemes/http/spec/timeout
== 15

>> system/schemes/http/spec/timeout: 300
== 300

>> upgrade
Fetching upgrade check ...
Script: "REBOL 3.0 Version Upgrade" Version: 1.0.1 Date: 7-Apr-2009
Checking for updates...

R3 current version: 2.100.97.2.5
It was released on: 9-Feb-2010/21:48:15

You need to update R3.
Download new release? y
Downloading 2.100.97.2.5 ...
Decompressing 238866 bytes
Saving new version to: updates/r3-a97
Copy and rename the file as needed.

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