python socket object accept time out

Maybe settimeout() is what you're looking for.

You can set the default timeout with

import socket
print socket.getdefaulttimeout()
socket.setdefaulttimeout(60)

AFAIK This will affect all the socket operation

You can use settimeout() as in this example:

import socket

tcpServer = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM) 
tcpServer.setsockopt(socket.SOL_SOCKET, socket.SO_REUSEADDR, 1)
tcpServer.settimeout(0.2) # timeout for listening
tcpServer.bind(('0.0.0.0', 10000)) # IP and PORT
tcpServer.listen(1)

stopped = False
while not stopped:
  try: 
    (conn, (ip, port)) = tcpServer.accept() 
  except socket.timeout:
    pass
  except:
    raise
  else:
    # work with the connection, create a thread etc.
    ...

The loop will run until stopped is set to true and then exit after (at most) the timeout you have set. (In my application I pass the connection handle to a newly created thread and continue the loop in order to be able to accept further simultaneous connections.)