--- emerge.old	2007-05-27 15:42:51.000000000 +0200
+++ emerge	2007-05-27 10:55:02.000000000 +0200
@@ -4045,7 +4045,7 @@
 					# Timeout here in case the server is unresponsive.  The
 					# --timeout rsync option doesn't apply to the initial
 					# connection attempt.
-					signal.alarm(15)
+					signal.alarm(500)
 					try:
 						mypids.extend(portage_exec.spawn(
 							mycommand, env=settings.environ(), returnpid=True))