Use "-timeout" for the timeout of the connection setup.
The documentation of ns_http says:
-expire T
time to wait for the whole request to complete. Upon expiry of this timer, request processing is unconditionally stopped, regardless of whether the connection or some data to read/write is still pending. The time can be specified in any supported ns_time format.
-timeout T
time to wait for connection setup and socket readable/writable state. The time can be specified in any supported ns_time format.
