1124625 - fail quickly if there is a connection error

Allows requests timeout settings to be configurable and set reasonable defaults. If requests does timeout (a connection error), these changes prevent requests from attempting the same base url again.
[1124625](https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1124625)
You also need to document these new options in the doc block below, so you could explain the default values there.