My problem was solved.

I pretty much have the same problem and after following your advise I am now getting “An Unexpected HTTP Error occurred during the API request.” – will let you know if I find a work around

Do you still get the timeout error with wp-includes/http.php lines 1276-1277 commented out?

If removing those lines allows the connections to happen, then you prolly just need to figure out what your actual timeout number should be. It might just need to be higher than 15 seconds. That being said, if your server is taking longer than 15 seconds per cURL request, there’s prolly something nastier going on somewhere else and all this is doing is masking the symptoms.

But, to find out your adequate timeout number, you could try enabling Core Control’s “HTTP Access Logger Module”. It’s in Tools > Core Control (Main Page). Once you enable the module, don’t forget to also go into the External HTTP Access Logger “tab” and click the “Enable HTTP Logging” button. Click thru a few pages in the WP dashboard that generate the timeout error, then check back and see what the logger has to report. It might tell you something new.

A more hardcore way would be to catch your cron results in an error_log file. Instead of the line 1325 debug code you see above, add this instead to wp-includes/http.php:

1325

error_log(print_r(curl_getinfo($handle),TRUE));

Naturally, wrapping curl_getinfo() in error_log() is nicer to your users than just dumping the output to screen. FYI, my error_log file ended up in the wp-admin folder.

Look in the file for values of [total_time], [namelookup_time], and so on. If they are longer than 15, then change the plugin code to a higher number.

I tried this solution and it doesn’t work. The plugin activates OK, but Core Control still shows me an error:
An Error has occured: name lookup timed out

I have 5 wordpress sites stalled with the wp-o-matics not updating the RSS because the cURL doesn’t work anymore.

(The sites are hosted at 1Dollar-webhosting and the tech support does not even ANSWER email, except intermittently every week or so, and then they answer with a non sequitur.)

Any help solving this hosting-related problem would be SUPER appreciated !!!