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I've added this inside the system.web node of my web.config

<sessionState mode="InProc" timeout="600" />

but my sessions are timing out within 30 minutes.

is there something else I need to do to increase my session timeout length?

There is a forms authentication node in my web.config as well but I'm not using any authentication on the web site. The forms authentication has a timeout value of 2880...but again, I'm not doing any authentication at all...

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but my sessions are timing out within 30 minutes.

I suspect it's IIS which is recycling the application pool after a certain time of inactivity. And since your sessions are stored in-memory their contents is wiped out of existence when the web server tears down the application domain.

Look at the properties of the application pool of your application in IIS. You will see that there are settings allowing to configure this. There are also conditions such as memory or CPU threshold limits when IIS might recycle your application pool. If you want durable sessions you need to make them out-of-proc (session state server or SQL).

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ok I do see in my app pool that it says idle timeout 20 minutes. If I increase that value to say 600 (like I had in my web.config) will that override anything in the web.config? I ask because I have other sites that I need to adjust as well and if I don't have to add the sessionState to web.config, that would save me a step. Also, I couldn't find anything about the conditions nor a way to set the mode in IIS...am I missing something?
@ChristopherJohnson, changing this setting in IIS will not override anything in your web.config. It's purely IIS thingy. Remember that even if you change this setting to 600 in IIS, you get no guarantees that IIS won't recycle your application pool. As I stated in my answer this could happen under different circumstances that you are not under control if. Things like memory or CPU threshold usage for example. And as I said in my answer the only reliable way to ensure durable sessions is to make them out-of-proc so that they are not tied to the application domain that could be thorn by IIS.
ya I got that, but I'm not 100% sure where to make the setting change to make it "out-of-proc"...is that a setting within the app pool properties?
@ChristopherJohnson, it's the mode attribute of your sessionState tag in web.config. Its possible values are Off|InProc|StateServer|SQLServer. You are looking for StateServer or SQLServer. You can read about the different modes here: msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms178586.aspx

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