Drb Timeout issues

All,

I am using drb to query server information from a client. My issue is
when the client gets the server object and begins querying information,
if the server shuts down or loses a it ip address, the client wait for
the server to come up again. Until the client does not receive the
information, it waits.

Is there any way I can set a timeout or check if the server exists and
not query information in such a case?

Thanks for all the help,

Angad