[sclug] Socket timeout

[Douglas Holden]

Hi all. I don't often post here 
Just to see if it could be done I am downloading and installing a cut-
down version of Debian using only a 56k dial-up connection (along the
lines of an article from the USA by Clinton de Young a year ago, though
he used broad-band). 
wget got the jigsaw files and then I got CD-1 with jigdo, which got the
base system installed. But apt-get x-window-system never seems to finish
before a "socket timeout" due to the modem dropping the line happens.
Then it leaves the package half downloaded and starts on the next one.
So that leaves me with problems...
Is there a way to increase the time that apt-get will wait for the
network (which I have not configured) (dial-up is done by IPCop firewall
box)?
All thoughts short of frank derision welcome.
Douglas