diff --git a/DnsServerCore.ApplicationCommon/IDnsServer.cs b/DnsServerCore.ApplicationCommon/IDnsServer.cs
index 916a77d6..c6c6e1d2 100644
--- a/DnsServerCore.ApplicationCommon/IDnsServer.cs
+++ b/DnsServerCore.ApplicationCommon/IDnsServer.cs
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 /*
 Technitium DNS Server
-Copyright (C) 2021  Shreyas Zare (shreyas@technitium.com)
+Copyright (C) 2022  Shreyas Zare (shreyas@technitium.com)
 
 This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
@@ -33,8 +33,9 @@ namespace DnsServerCore.ApplicationCommon
         /// Allows querying the DNS server core directly. This call supports recursion even if its not enabled in the DNS server configuration. The request wont be routed to any of the installed DNS Apps except for processing APP records. The request and its response are not counted in any stats or logged.
         /// </summary>
         /// <param name="question">The question record containing the details to query.</param>
-        /// <returns>The DNS response for the DNS query or <c>null</c> if the request timed out.</returns>
-        Task<DnsDatagram> DirectQueryAsync(DnsQuestionRecord question);
+        /// <returns>The DNS response for the DNS query.</returns>
+        /// <exception cref="TimeoutException">When request times out.</exception>
+        Task<DnsDatagram> DirectQueryAsync(DnsQuestionRecord question, int timeout = 4000);
 
         /// <summary>
         /// Writes a log entry to the DNS server log file.