samba - Sep 2003 - dead connection timeouts?

I'm trying to reduce the time it takes the client to determine that a
server is unavailable.  Is this what "dead connection timeouts" are
for?  I searched samba's documentation and the web, and found multiple
mention of the term "dead connection timeouts," but no description of
what they are and how they are used.

Regardless of whether "dead connection timeouts" are the answer, what
do I need to tweak in order to prevent "ls /some/dead/server/mount"
from sleeping for 30 seconds?

Thanks,
Dave