[tablespoon]

> Wouldn't that make things worse? Those applications usually expect to be able to make these calls. So now, instead of lagging once in a while when the home base is having troubles, it will lag all the time.

Not necessarily. The lag may be waiting for the remote server to respond to a request, and the app may move on quickly if it can't open a connection at all. It's not totally uncommon to work totally offline (e.g. on an airplane), so there's a decent chance the test that scenario.

[tdrgabi]

In my experience, each time a firewall is blocking a connection, you experience it as a timeout, so the app tries to connect and finally times out.

Which would take longer. I haven't tried though

[happymellon]

It depends entirely on how the firewall is set up.

If you are getting timeouts then the folks who set up the firewall hate you.

[iforgotpassword]

No, it usually results in an immediate connection refused.

[tsukurimashou]

it won't wait for a timeout if the connection is explicitly dropped by a blocking rule