I have a java class that was loaded to our Oracle 8i database. The java's purpose is simply to go out to a SQL Sever database and return some data in an XML string to our application. We've encountered a problem recently where it appears the statement that calls the java never completes which leaves the Oracle SID running until we can get a DBA to kill it. I'm assuming that we lose the connection over the network. Since this is only happening once or twice out of every few thousand connections, it's extremely hard to track. What I'd like to explore is putting a timeout on this statement, but not sure if that can be done on the database or if it has to be coded into the java or if it's possible at all. Any suggestions?