timeout

What the f-!k is this? One day I actually have the entire to just totally screw around, and within 5 minutes I get kicked, game saying I got some Protocol Timeout thingy. It doesn't let me back for 5 minutes, then seems to work fine....then gives me another "Protocol Timeout" once I zone. Now...

How long is the timeout supposed to be before the board considers a click a "new visit"? It seems like every single time I come read the boards here it randomly marks everything as read while I'm in the middle of reading threads. It can't be taking me more than 5 minutes for most of this,