diff --git a/backend/empty.php b/backend/empty.php
index e35f663e..76ff564a 100644
--- a/backend/empty.php
+++ b/backend/empty.php
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 <?php
+set_time_limit (15); // prevent PHP from leaving sockets open with client
 header( "HTTP/1.1 200 OK" );
 if(isset($_GET["cors"])){
     header('Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *');