diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index b0e9cac..926497e 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -44,14 +44,12 @@ swis.query("SELECT NodeID from Orion.Nodes")
 ```
 
 ## Setting Timeout
+#be default, timeout is set to 10 seconds
 
 ```python
 import orionsdk
-import requests
 
-session = requests.Session()
-session.timeout = 30 # Set your timeout in seconds
-swis = orionsdk.SwisClient("SolarWinds-Orion", "username", "password", verify="server.pem", session=session)
+swis = orionsdk.SwisClient("SolarWinds-Orion", "username", "password", timeout=5, verify="server.pem", session=session)
 swis.query("SELECT NodeID from Orion.Nodes")
 ```
 
diff --git a/orionsdk/swisclient.py b/orionsdk/swisclient.py
index 4f72300..049f64d 100644
--- a/orionsdk/swisclient.py
+++ b/orionsdk/swisclient.py
@@ -11,13 +11,14 @@ def _json_serial(obj):
 
 
 class SwisClient:
-    def __init__(self, hostname, username, password, port=17774, verify=False, session=None):
+    def __init__(self, hostname, username, password, port=17774, timeout=10, verify=False, session=None):
         self.url = "https://{}:{}/SolarWinds/InformationService/v3/Json/".\
                 format(hostname, port)
         self._session = session or requests.Session()
         self._session.auth = (username, password)
         self._session.headers.update({'Content-Type': 'application/json'})
         self._session.verify = verify
+        self._timeout = timeout
 
     def query(self, query, **params):
         return self._req(
@@ -54,6 +55,7 @@ def bulkdelete(self, uris):
     def _req(self, method, frag, data=None):
         resp = self._session.request(method, 
                                      self.url + frag,
+                                     timeout = self._timeout
                                      data=json.dumps(data, default=_json_serial))
 
         # try to extract reason from response when request returns error