diff --git a/src/main/java/com/commafeed/backend/HttpGetter.java b/src/main/java/com/commafeed/backend/HttpGetter.java
index 0f3075e1..bb8bc2b9 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/commafeed/backend/HttpGetter.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/commafeed/backend/HttpGetter.java
@@ -59,9 +59,9 @@ public class HttpGetter {
 
 	private static final X509HostnameVerifier VERIFIER = new DefaultHostnameVerifier();
 
-	public HttpResult getBinary(String url) throws ClientProtocolException,
+	public HttpResult getBinary(String url, int timeout) throws ClientProtocolException,
 			IOException, NotModifiedException {
-		return getBinary(url, null, null);
+		return getBinary(url, null, null, timeout);
 	}
 
 	/**
@@ -78,12 +78,12 @@ public class HttpGetter {
 	 * @throws NotModifiedException
 	 *             if the url hasn't changed since we asked for it last time
 	 */
-	public HttpResult getBinary(String url, String lastModified, String eTag)
+	public HttpResult getBinary(String url, String lastModified, String eTag, int timeout)
 			throws ClientProtocolException, IOException, NotModifiedException {
 		HttpResult result = null;
 		long start = System.currentTimeMillis();
 
-		HttpClient client = newClient();
+		HttpClient client = newClient(timeout);
 		try {
 			HttpGet httpget = new HttpGet(url);
 			httpget.addHeader(HttpHeaders.ACCEPT_LANGUAGE, "en");
@@ -191,7 +191,7 @@ public class HttpGetter {
 
 	}
 
-	public static HttpClient newClient() {
+	public static HttpClient newClient(int timeout) {
 		DefaultHttpClient client = new SystemDefaultHttpClient();
 
 		SSLSocketFactory ssf = new SSLSocketFactory(SSL_CONTEXT, VERIFIER);
@@ -202,8 +202,8 @@ public class HttpGetter {
 		HttpParams params = client.getParams();
 		HttpClientParams.setCookiePolicy(params, CookiePolicy.IGNORE_COOKIES);
 		HttpProtocolParams.setContentCharset(params, "UTF-8");
-		HttpConnectionParams.setConnectionTimeout(params, 20000);
-		HttpConnectionParams.setSoTimeout(params, 20000);
+		HttpConnectionParams.setConnectionTimeout(params, timeout);
+		HttpConnectionParams.setSoTimeout(params, timeout);
 		client.setHttpRequestRetryHandler(new DefaultHttpRequestRetryHandler(0,
 				false));
 		return new DecompressingHttpClient(client);
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/commafeed/backend/feeds/FaviconFetcher.java b/src/main/java/com/commafeed/backend/feeds/FaviconFetcher.java
index 1a129910..e2cb3342 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/commafeed/backend/feeds/FaviconFetcher.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/commafeed/backend/feeds/FaviconFetcher.java
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ public class FaviconFetcher {
 
 	private static long MIN_ICON_LENGTH = 100;
 	private static long MAX_ICON_LENGTH = 20000;
+	private static int TIMEOUT = 4000;
 
 	protected static List<String> ICON_MIMETYPES = Arrays.asList(
 			"image/x-icon", "image/vnd.microsoft.icon", "image/ico",
@@ -70,7 +71,7 @@ public class FaviconFetcher {
 		try {
 			url = FeedUtils.removeTrailingSlash(url) + "/favicon.ico";
 			log.debug("getting root icon at {}", url);
-			HttpResult result = getter.getBinary(url);
+			HttpResult result = getter.getBinary(url, TIMEOUT);
 			bytes = result.getContent();
 			contentType = result.getContentType();
 		} catch (Exception e) {
@@ -118,7 +119,7 @@ public class FaviconFetcher {
 
 		Document doc = null;
 		try {
-			HttpResult result = getter.getBinary(url);
+			HttpResult result = getter.getBinary(url, TIMEOUT);
 			doc = Jsoup.parse(new String(result.getContent()), url);
 		} catch (Exception e) {
 			log.debug("Failed to retrieve page to find icon");
@@ -144,7 +145,7 @@ public class FaviconFetcher {
 		byte[] bytes = null;
 		String contentType = null;
 		try {
-			HttpResult result = getter.getBinary(href);
+			HttpResult result = getter.getBinary(href, TIMEOUT);
 			bytes = result.getContent();
 			contentType = result.getContentType();
 		} catch (Exception e) {
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/commafeed/backend/feeds/FeedFetcher.java b/src/main/java/com/commafeed/backend/feeds/FeedFetcher.java
index 9030d5f1..47851747 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/commafeed/backend/feeds/FeedFetcher.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/commafeed/backend/feeds/FeedFetcher.java
@@ -37,12 +37,13 @@ public class FeedFetcher {
 		log.debug("Fetching feed {}", feedUrl);
 		FetchedFeed fetchedFeed = null;
 
-		HttpResult result = getter.getBinary(feedUrl, lastModified, eTag);
+		int timeout = 20000;
+		HttpResult result = getter.getBinary(feedUrl, lastModified, eTag, timeout);
 		if (extractFeedUrlFromHtml) {
 			String extractedUrl = extractFeedUrl(
 					StringUtils.newStringUtf8(result.getContent()), feedUrl);
 			if (org.apache.commons.lang.StringUtils.isNotBlank(extractedUrl)) {
-				result = getter.getBinary(extractedUrl, lastModified, eTag);
+				result = getter.getBinary(extractedUrl, lastModified, eTag, timeout);
 				feedUrl = extractedUrl;
 			}
 		}
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/commafeed/backend/pubsubhubbub/SubscriptionHandler.java b/src/main/java/com/commafeed/backend/pubsubhubbub/SubscriptionHandler.java
index 1c3cd179..bfc5e4ae 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/commafeed/backend/pubsubhubbub/SubscriptionHandler.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/commafeed/backend/pubsubhubbub/SubscriptionHandler.java
@@ -68,7 +68,7 @@ public class SubscriptionHandler {
 		post.setHeader(HttpHeaders.CONTENT_TYPE,
 				MediaType.APPLICATION_FORM_URLENCODED);
 
-		HttpClient client = HttpGetter.newClient();
+		HttpClient client = HttpGetter.newClient(20000);
 		try {
 			post.setEntity(new UrlEncodedFormEntity(nvp));
 			HttpResponse response = client.execute(post);
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/commafeed/frontend/rest/resources/ServerREST.java b/src/main/java/com/commafeed/frontend/rest/resources/ServerREST.java
index 3401825c..e6986159 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/commafeed/frontend/rest/resources/ServerREST.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/commafeed/frontend/rest/resources/ServerREST.java
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ public class ServerREST extends AbstractResourceREST {
 		
 		url = FeedUtils.imageProxyDecoder(url);
 		try {
-			HttpResult result = httpGetter.getBinary(url);
+			HttpResult result = httpGetter.getBinary(url, 20000);
 			return Response.ok(result.getContent()).build();
 		} catch (Exception e) {
 			return Response.status(Status.SERVICE_UNAVAILABLE)