diff --git a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/api/python/PythonRDD.scala b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/api/python/PythonRDD.scala
index 19f4c95fcad74..7670a870e860a 100644
--- a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/api/python/PythonRDD.scala
+++ b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/api/python/PythonRDD.scala
@@ -613,7 +613,16 @@ private[spark] object PythonRDD extends Logging {
       setDaemon(true)
       override def run() {
         try {
-          val sock = serverSocket.accept()
+          var sock: Socket = null
+          try {
+            sock = serverSocket.accept()
+          } catch {
+            case e: SocketTimeoutException =>
+              // there is a small chance that the client had connected, so retry
+              logWarning("Timed out after 4 seconds, retry once")
+              serverSocket.setSoTimeout(10)
+              sock = serverSocket.accept()
+          }
           val out = new DataOutputStream(new BufferedOutputStream(sock.getOutputStream))
           try {
             writeIteratorToStream(items, out)
diff --git a/python/pyspark/rdd.py b/python/pyspark/rdd.py
index c337a43c8a7fc..b66d32c9d5b39 100644
--- a/python/pyspark/rdd.py
+++ b/python/pyspark/rdd.py
@@ -113,6 +113,7 @@ def _parse_memory(s):
 
 def _load_from_socket(port, serializer):
     sock = socket.socket()
+    sock.settimeout(5)
     try:
         sock.connect(("localhost", port))
         rf = sock.makefile("rb", 65536)