On freebsd 8, using python 2.6.6, I've run into the bug already widely dealt with in these reports :
http://bugs.python.org/issue1380952
http://bugs.python.org/issue1153016

When using socket timeouts (eg. with socket.setdefaulttimeout()), whatever the timeout I use (eg. 10 seconds), I begin having random "SSLError: The read operation timed out" exceptions in my http calls, via urlopen or 3rd party libraries.

Here is an example of traceback ending:

...
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.6/site-packages/ZSI-2.0-py2.6.egg/ZSI/client.py", line 349, in ReceiveRaw
    response = self.h.getresponse()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.6/httplib.py", line 990, in getresponse
    response.begin()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.6/httplib.py", line 391, in begin
    version, status, reason = self._read_status()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.6/httplib.py", line 349, in _read_status
    line = self.fp.readline()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.6/socket.py", line 427, in readline
    data = recv(1)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.6/ssl.py", line 215, in recv
    return self.read(buflen)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.6/ssl.py", line 136, in read
    return self._sslobj.read(len)
SSLError: The read operation timed out

I've checked the py2.6.6 sources, the patches described in previous reports are still applied (eg. SSL_pending() checks etc.), I have no idea of how so long socket timeouts might interfere with ssl operations...