When macros such as the RSS Macro make HTTP requests to servers which are down, a long timeout value is used. You can set this timeout value through a system parameter to avoid this.

To configure the HTTP Timeout Settings:

1. 
2. Select 'General Configuration' under the 'Configuration' heading in the left-hand panel.
3. Find the 'Connection Timeouts' section in the lower portion of the screen.
4. Click 'Edit' to adjust the settings:
   • Adjust External connections enabled: This setting allows system administrators to disable external connections so macros like the RSS Macro wont be allowed to make connections to an external server. It's provides protection against external servers providing insecure HTML, timing out or causing performance problems. The default setting is 'true'.
   • Connection Timeout (milliseconds): Sets the maximum time for a connection to be established. A value of zero means the timeout is not used. The default setting is ten seconds (10000).
   • Socket Timeout (milliseconds): Sets the default socket timeout (SO_TIMEOUT) in milliseconds, which is the maximum time Confluence will wait for data. A timeout value of zero is interpreted as an infinite timeout. The default setting is ten seconds (10000).