Max execution time

Hi all (I post questions although i dont get answers, but i am trying. I must say i dont give answers because i dont know much about php yet) I have problems with script exceedded time. Script is executing mssql stored procedure which executes about 5-6 mins. I need to execute it and then get results in the file, but i allways get error about max execution time. Customers wouldnt complain if script is executing too long if they could get the results. I know i can set max.execution.time from php with ini_set(). But, i think i have read in the manual, that this directive doesnt affect script execution time if script is running query. So even if i set max_execution_time to 6mins could the script break? Could someone explain it to me. Radovan PS. What means PHP?