On Red Hat Satellite, satellite-sync fails with 'ERROR: server.dump.channel_packages_short .. Timeout Exception'

Issue

• I'm getting the following error when attempting a satelite_sync:

  10:29:12
  SYNC ERROR:
  
  Exception reported from satellite
  Time: Thu Jan 13 10:29:12 2011
  Exception type satellite_tools.syncLib.RhnSyncException
  
  Exception Handler Information
  Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "/usr/bin/satellite-sync", line 143, in main
      return satsync.Runner().main()
    File "/usr/share/rhn/satellite_tools/satsync.py", line 226, in main
      ret = method()
    File "/usr/share/rhn/satellite_tools/satsync.py", line 314, in _step_short
      return self.syncer.processShortPackages()
    File "/usr/share/rhn/satellite_tools/satsync.py", line 915, in processShortPackages
      stream_loader.process(package_ids)
    File "/usr/share/rhn/satellite_tools/satsync.py", line 2101, in process
      stream = apply(self.wire_loader, args)
    File "/usr/share/rhn/satellite_tools/xmlWireSource.py", line 229, in getChannelShortPackagesXmlStream
      (self.systemid, channel, last_modified))
    File "/usr/share/rhn/satellite_tools/xmlWireSource.py", line 174, in _openSocketStream
      raise RhnSyncException, lastErrorMsg
  RhnSyncException: ERROR: server.dump.channel_packages_short('<the systemid>', 'rhel-x86_64-ws-4', 1294743966): Timeout Exception