1. A method comprises: selecting one of a plurality of dispersed storage (DS) processing modules for facilitating access to a dispersed storage network (DSN) memory; sending a DSN memory access request to the one of the plurality of DS processing modules; when no response is received within a given time frame or when the response to the access request does not include an access indication, selecting another one of the plurality of DS processing modules; and sending the DSN memory access request to the another one of the plurality of DS processing modules.