O Maven relata uma exceção de tempo limite durante o download de dependências, pois o tempo limite padrão é 60000, mas no meu caso eu preciso aumentar porque (o ambiente em que estou trabalhando estabeleceu um servidor intermediário que primeiro baixa todo o arquivo para seu próprio servidor e minha máquina obtenha os arquivos baixados desse servidor intermediário). Agora, aqui vem o problema: se a dependência for muito grande, simplesmente levando mais de 60000 mili segundos, o eclipse estourará com a seguinte exceção

SLF4J: Failed to load class "org.slf4j.impl.StaticLoggerBinder".
SLF4J: Defaulting to no-operation (NOP) logger implementation
SLF4J: See http://www.slf4j.org/codes.html#StaticLoggerBinder for further details.
[INFO] Scanning for projects...
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Reactor Build Order:
[INFO] 
[INFO] Arquillian Persistence Extension Aggregator
[INFO] Arquillian Persistence Extension API
[INFO] Arquillian Persistence Extension SPI
[INFO] Arquillian Persistence Extension Core
[INFO] Arquillian Persistence Extension DBUnit Integration
[INFO] Arquillian Persistence Extension Integration Tests
[INFO]                                                                         
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Building Arquillian Persistence Extension Aggregator 1.0.0.Final-SNAPSHOT
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] 
[INFO] --- maven-enforcer-plugin:1.0:enforce (enforce-java-version) @ arquillian-persistence-parent ---
[INFO] 
[INFO] --- maven-enforcer-plugin:1.0:enforce (enforce-maven-version) @ arquillian-persistence-parent ---
[INFO] 
[INFO] --- maven-dependency-plugin:2.3:unpack (unpack) @ arquillian-persistence-parent ---
[INFO] Configured Artifact: org.wildfly:wildfly-dist:8.0.0.Final:zip
Downloading: http://repo.maven.apache.org/maven2/org/wildfly/wildfly-dist/8.0.0.Final/wildfly-dist-8.0.0.Final.zip
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Reactor Summary:
[INFO] 
[INFO] Arquillian Persistence Extension Aggregator ....... FAILURE [2:11.315s]
[INFO] Arquillian Persistence Extension API .............. SKIPPED
[INFO] Arquillian Persistence Extension SPI .............. SKIPPED
[INFO] Arquillian Persistence Extension Core ............. SKIPPED
[INFO] Arquillian Persistence Extension DBUnit Integration  SKIPPED
[INFO] Arquillian Persistence Extension Integration Tests  SKIPPED
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] BUILD FAILURE
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Total time: 2:11.908s
[INFO] Finished at: Wed May 07 11:27:41 PKT 2014
[INFO] Final Memory: 22M/177M
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[ERROR] Failed to execute goal org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-dependency-plugin:2.3:unpack (unpack) on project arquillian-persistence-parent: Unable to resolve artifa
ct. Could not transfer artifact org.wildfly:wildfly-dist:zip:8.0.0.Final from/to central (http://repo.maven.apache.org/maven2): No response received after 60000
[ERROR] org.wildfly:wildfly-dist:zip:8.0.0.Final
[ERROR] 
[ERROR] from the specified remote repositories:
[ERROR] central (http://repo.maven.apache.org/maven2, releases=true, snapshots=false)
[ERROR] -> [Help 1]
[ERROR] 
[ERROR] To see the full stack trace of the errors, re-run Maven with the -e switch.
[ERROR] Re-run Maven using the -X switch to enable full debug logging.
[ERROR] 
[ERROR] For more information about the errors and possible solutions, please read the following articles:
[ERROR] [Help 1] http://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/MAVEN/MojoExecutionException

Nenhuma resposta recebida após 60000, esta linha cria problemas.

Como solução:

estou usandosettings.xml com as seguintes configurações

<settings>
  <servers>
    <server>
      <id>central</id>
      <configuration>
            <timeout>120000</timeout>
      </configuration>
    </server>
  </servers>
</settings>

enquanto tenho certeza de que o caminho do settings.xml está correto.

Infelizmente isso não funciona.