Currently EtherBoot seems to be quite generous when it comes to network timeouts. The standard values in src/Config (as well as Rom-o-matic) will allow for delays of up to several minutes waiting for TFTP server responses.

This is probably not desirable, since it appears to the user that EtherBoot has simply frozen.

Several Requests for Comments, especially RFC 2131 and RFC 1112 are mentioned in the EtherBoot source as relating to timeout intervals.

The PXE specification will also have to be read in this respect, despite its known flaws and status of a recommendation rather than a standard.

Before changing EtherBoot default values a discussion on the etherboot-discuss mailing list would be most welcome.