Timeout for what? Session? Transactions? If session, it's configurable where it normally is (web.xml). If transactions, I'm pretty sure that it's also where you'd normally expect it to be ({db-type}-ds.xml), unless Seam has a unique reason to override this. I don't suspect so. In/Out and the HttpSession are related only in that the data members annotated by In/Out can implicitly participate in session scope (or any other scope). The fundamental difference between using these and using the "old way" is that you don't have to write all the tedious boilerplate to create EJBs or save/read components to/from any scope. 20-30% of the typical pre-ejb3, pre-seam application might be boilerplate, and that's using an MVC framework. Seam humbly does it for you. View the original post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=3981043#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...