diff --git a/tests/phpunit/includes/bootstrap.php b/tests/phpunit/includes/bootstrap.php
index e74b618691..0beefd604a 100644
--- a/tests/phpunit/includes/bootstrap.php
+++ b/tests/phpunit/includes/bootstrap.php
@@ -164,6 +164,13 @@ class WP_PHPUnit_Util_Getopt extends PHPUnit_Util_Getopt {
 		foreach ( $skipped_groups as $group_name => $skipped ) {
 			echo sprintf( 'Not running %1$s tests. To execute these, use --group %1$s.', $group_name ) . PHP_EOL;
 		}
+
+		if ( ! isset( $skipped_groups['external-http'] ) ){
+			echo PHP_EOL;
+			echo 'External HTTP skipped tests can be caused by timeouts.' . PHP_EOL;
+			echo 'If this changeset inclues changes to HTTP, make sure there are no timeouts.' . PHP_EOL;
+			echo PHP_EOL;
+		}
     }
 }
 new WP_PHPUnit_Util_Getopt( $_SERVER['argv'] );
diff --git a/tests/phpunit/tests/http/base.php b/tests/phpunit/tests/http/base.php
index c95fac303e..337a74b50e 100644
--- a/tests/phpunit/tests/http/base.php
+++ b/tests/phpunit/tests/http/base.php
@@ -17,6 +17,27 @@ abstract class WP_HTTP_UnitTestCase extends WP_UnitTestCase {
 
 	protected $http_request_args;
 
+	/**
+	 * Mark test as skipped if the HTTP request times out
+	 */
+	function skipTestOnTimeout( $response ) {
+		if( ! is_wp_error( $response ) ){
+			return;
+		}
+		if ( 'connect() timed out!' === $response->get_error_message() ){
+			$this->markTestSkipped( 'HTTP timeout' );
+		}
+
+		if ( 0 === strpos( $response->get_error_message(), 'Operation timed out after' ) ){
+			$this->markTestSkipped( 'HTTP timeout' );
+		}
+
+		if ( 'stream_socket_client(): unable to connect to tcp://s.w.org:80 (Connection timed out)' === $response->get_error_message() ){
+			$this->markTestSkipped( 'HTTP timeout' );
+		}
+
+	}
+
 	function setUp() {
 
 		if ( is_callable( array('WP_Http', '_getTransport') ) ) {
@@ -198,6 +219,8 @@ abstract class WP_HTTP_UnitTestCase extends WP_UnitTestCase {
 			unlink( $res['filename'] );
 		}
 
+		$this->skipTestOnTimeout ($res );
+
 		$this->assertNotWPError( $res );
 		$this->assertEquals( '', $res['body'] ); // The body should be empty.
 		$this->assertEquals( $size, $res['headers']['content-length'] ); // Check the headers are returned (and the size is the same..)
@@ -219,6 +242,8 @@ abstract class WP_HTTP_UnitTestCase extends WP_UnitTestCase {
 			unlink( $res['filename'] );
 		}
 
+		$this->skipTestOnTimeout ($res );
+
 		$this->assertNotWPError( $res );
 		$this->assertEquals( $size, $filesize ); // Check that the file is written to disk correctly without any extra characters
 
@@ -235,6 +260,8 @@ abstract class WP_HTTP_UnitTestCase extends WP_UnitTestCase {
 
 		$res = wp_remote_request( $url, array( 'timeout' => 30, 'limit_response_size' => $size ) );
 
+		$this->skipTestOnTimeout ($res );
+
 		$this->assertNotWPError( $res );
 		$this->assertEquals( $size, strlen( $res['body'] ) );
 	}