diff --git a/cake/libs/socket.php b/cake/libs/socket.php
index fb50940d0..c5c945aa0 100644
--- a/cake/libs/socket.php
+++ b/cake/libs/socket.php
@@ -120,7 +120,11 @@ class CakeSocket extends Object {
 			$this->setLastError($errStr, $errNum);
 		}
 
-		return $this->connected = is_resource($this->connection);
+		$this->connected = is_resource($this->connection);
+		if ($this->connected) {
+			stream_set_timeout($this->connection, $this->config['timeout']);
+		}
+		return $this->connected;
 	}
 
 /**
@@ -218,7 +222,13 @@ class CakeSocket extends Object {
 		}
 
 		if (!feof($this->connection)) {
-			return fread($this->connection, $length);
+			$buffer = fread($this->connection, $length);
+			$info = stream_get_meta_data($this->connection);
+			if ($info['timed_out']) {
+				$this->setLastError(E_WARNING, __('Connection timed out', true));
+				return false;
+			}
+			return $buffer;
 		} else {
 			return false;
 		}
diff --git a/cake/tests/cases/libs/socket.test.php b/cake/tests/cases/libs/socket.test.php
index 31ce57873..931f2b531 100644
--- a/cake/tests/cases/libs/socket.test.php
+++ b/cake/tests/cases/libs/socket.test.php
@@ -144,6 +144,18 @@ class SocketTest extends CakeTestCase {
 		$this->Socket = new CakeSocket(array('timeout' => 5));
 		$this->Socket->connect();
 		$this->assertEqual($this->Socket->read(26), null);
+
+		$config = array('host' => 'www.cakephp.org', 'timeout' => 1);
+		$this->Socket = new CakeSocket($config);
+		$this->assertTrue($this->Socket->connect());
+		$this->assertFalse($this->Socket->read(1024 * 1024));
+		$this->assertEqual($this->Socket->lastError(), '2: ' . __('Connection timed out', true));
+
+		$config = array('host' => 'www.cakephp.org', 'timeout' => 30);
+		$this->Socket = new CakeSocket($config);
+		$this->assertTrue($this->Socket->connect());
+		$this->assertEqual($this->Socket->read(26), null);
+		$this->assertEqual($this->Socket->lastError(), null);
 	}
 /**
  * testLastError method