diff --git a/code/nel/include/nel/gui/group_html.h b/code/nel/include/nel/gui/group_html.h
index dedf3a0bf..e5a2670a4 100644
--- a/code/nel/include/nel/gui/group_html.h
+++ b/code/nel/include/nel/gui/group_html.h
@@ -746,7 +746,7 @@ namespace NLGUI
 		{
 		public:
 			CDataDownload(const std::string &u, const std::string &d, TDataType t, CViewBase *i, const std::string &s, const std::string &m, const CStyleParams &style = CStyleParams(), const TImageType imagetype = NormalImage)
-				: data(NULL), fp(NULL), url(u), dest(d), type(t), luaScript(s), md5sum(m), redirects(0)
+				: data(NULL), fp(NULL), url(u), dest(d), type(t), luaScript(s), md5sum(m), redirects(0), ConnectionTimeout(60)
 			{
 				if (t == ImgType) imgs.push_back(CDataImageDownload(i, style, imagetype));
 			}
@@ -762,6 +762,7 @@ namespace NLGUI
 			uint32 redirects;
 			FILE *fp;
 			std::vector<CDataImageDownload> imgs;
+			uint32 ConnectionTimeout;
 		};
 
 		std::list<CDataDownload> Curls;
diff --git a/code/nel/src/gui/group_html.cpp b/code/nel/src/gui/group_html.cpp
index af2b6fd0b..90fd48c5c 100644
--- a/code/nel/src/gui/group_html.cpp
+++ b/code/nel/src/gui/group_html.cpp
@@ -546,6 +546,9 @@ namespace NLGUI
 		download.data = new CCurlWWWData(curl, download.url);
 		download.fp = fp;
 
+		// initial connection timeout, curl default is 300sec
+		curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT, download.ConnectionTimeout);
+
 		curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_NOPROGRESS, true);
 		curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_URL, download.url.c_str());