diff --git a/router/connection.go b/router/connection.go
index 9ff2e303..2388a284 100644
--- a/router/connection.go
+++ b/router/connection.go
@@ -285,8 +285,8 @@ func (conn *LocalConnection) handshake(acceptNewPeer bool) error {
 	// ourself. Only when we add this connection to the conn.local
 	// peer will it be visible from multiple go-routines.
 	tcpConn := conn.TCPConn
-	tcpConn.SetKeepAlive(true)
 	tcpConn.SetLinger(0)
+	conn.extendReadDeadline()
 
 	enc := gob.NewEncoder(tcpConn)
 
@@ -428,6 +428,7 @@ func (conn *LocalConnection) receiveTCP(decoder *gob.Decoder, usingPassword bool
 	var err error
 	for {
 		var msg []byte
+		conn.extendReadDeadline()
 		if conn.CheckFatal(decoder.Decode(&msg)) != nil {
 			return
 		}
@@ -501,6 +502,10 @@ func (conn *LocalConnection) receiveTCP(decoder *gob.Decoder, usingPassword bool
 	}
 }
 
+func (conn *LocalConnection) extendReadDeadline() {
+	conn.TCPConn.SetReadDeadline(time.Now().Add(ReadTimeout))
+}
+
 // Heartbeats
 
 // Heartbeating serves two purposes: a) keeping NAT paths alive, and
diff --git a/router/consts.go b/router/consts.go
index ae9fa46b..92245167 100644
--- a/router/consts.go
+++ b/router/consts.go
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ const (
 	SlowHeartbeat      = 10 * time.Second
 	FetchAllInterval   = 30 * time.Second
 	FragTestInterval   = 5 * time.Minute
+	ReadTimeout        = 2 * FetchAllInterval
 	PMTUVerifyAttempts = 8
 	PMTUVerifyTimeout  = 10 * time.Millisecond // gets doubled with every attempt
 	MaxDuration        = time.Duration(math.MaxInt64)