diff --git a/testssl.sh b/testssl.sh
index 6300d43..3118dfb 100755
--- a/testssl.sh
+++ b/testssl.sh
@@ -10172,7 +10172,8 @@ fd_socket() {
                     break
                fi
           done
-     elif ! exec 5<>/dev/tcp/$nodeip/$PORT; then  #  2>/dev/null would remove an error message, but disables debugging
+     elif ! timeout 2 bash -c "exec 3<>/dev/tcp/$nodeip/$PORT" || \
+          ! exec 5<>/dev/tcp/$nodeip/$PORT; then  #  2>/dev/null would remove an error message, but disables debugging
           ((NR_SOCKET_FAIL++))
           connectivity_problem $NR_SOCKET_FAIL $MAX_SOCKET_FAIL "TCP connect problem" "repeated TCP connect problems, giving up"
           outln