SOAPHttp call not working in the first invoke

Hi,
I am facing a strange problem, when i make a SOAPHttp call to another webservice from webM, it is getting timed out in the first time and if i try again it works well.Basically it is working perfectly for my second invoke but the very first invoke is always getting timed out. Can soem one tell me what could be the issue? is it a problem with webM or my service?

Thanks
Jimmy

Where is the external web service hosted? Is it hosted in a multi-server, load-balanced environment?

Rob,
Thanks for the reply.Below are the server details where the target web service is deployed.
.net version =2.0 Framework
Multi-server = No, this is a single server, Microsoft server 2000
Load-balanced environment = No

In fact this server is located in UK and we have a VPN tunnel between this server and our US webMethods server.

Thanks
Jimmy

Ah. The http session is likely timing out due to the time it takes to establish the link on the first call (lots of handshaking going on to create the VPN tunnel, etc.). What is your watt.net.timeout value? You might bump that up a bit. Another approach is to change your service to simply retry up to 3 times before giving up–this would address any number of transient network issues.

Thanks Rob,
I figured out the issue, the secure VPN tunnel gets disconneted in every 60 minutes as a security set up, if i need to keep it up, then i need to keep pinging the server in every 59 minutes or need to change the gateway security settings.Anyway,i already have a time out of 60 sec for the SOAP call, i need to implement a retry to the SOAPHttp call. Since i don’t use a trigger, i think i will just put my SOAPHttp call in a REPEAT on FAILURE step with count ‘3’.

Thanks for helping me
Jimmy