nmap taking forever

[John Hines]

Hello,   I've been unable to find a way to speed up the initial nmap scan.  I usually run the tcp connect udp scan, and OS fingerprinting.  When I scan external IP's to my network the nmap scans often go on for hours.  However from command line I can scan the hosts with both the tcp and udp scans in just a matter of minuets.  Does anyone know how I can speed the nmap process up?  I'm wondering if there are some timeouts I can lower.   Thanks,   John