diff --git a/src/main/java/com/threerings/getdown/data/Application.java b/src/main/java/com/threerings/getdown/data/Application.java
index af152a3..b2fd964 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/threerings/getdown/data/Application.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/threerings/getdown/data/Application.java
@@ -1509,6 +1509,11 @@ public class Application
             // about it; turning off caches is not a performance concern, because when Getdown asks
             // to download a file, it expects it to come over the wire, not from a cache
             uconn.setUseCaches(false);
+            // configure a connect timeout if requested
+            int ctimeout = SysProps.connectTimeout();
+            if (ctimeout > 0) {
+                uconn.setConnectTimeout(ctimeout * 1000);
+            }
             fin = uconn.getInputStream();
             fout = new FileOutputStream(target);
             StreamUtil.copy(fin, fout);
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/threerings/getdown/data/SysProps.java b/src/main/java/com/threerings/getdown/data/SysProps.java
index 671bf11..858cc26 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/threerings/getdown/data/SysProps.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/threerings/getdown/data/SysProps.java
@@ -65,4 +65,12 @@ public class SysProps
     public static boolean direct () {
         return Boolean.getBoolean("direct");
     }
+
+    /** Specifies the connection timeout (in seconds) to use when downloading control files from
+     * the server. This is chiefly useful when you are running in versionless mode and want Getdown
+     * to more quickly timeout its startup update check if the server with which it is
+     * communicating is not available. Usage: {@code -Dconnect_timeout=N}. */
+    public static int connectTimeout () {
+        return Integer.getInteger("connect_timeout", 0);
+    }
 }