diff --git a/bin/ansible b/bin/ansible
index 909e62b40b..82d99598e6 100755
--- a/bin/ansible
+++ b/bin/ansible
@@ -59,6 +59,8 @@ class Cli(object):
             help="try to print output on one line")
         parser.add_option('-t', '--tree', dest='tree', default=None,
             help="if specified, a directory name to save output to, one file per host")
+        parser.add_option('-T', '--timeout', default=C.DEFAULT_TIMEOUT, type='int',
+            dest='timeout', help="set the timeout in seconds for ssh")
 
         options, args = parser.parse_args()
 
@@ -82,6 +84,7 @@ class Cli(object):
             remote_user=options.remote_user,
             remote_pass=sshpass,
             host_list=options.host_list,
+            timeout=options.timeout,
             forks=options.forks,
             pattern=options.pattern,
             verbose=True,
diff --git a/lib/ansible/runner.py b/lib/ansible/runner.py
index 8a343a37d6..e126494a85 100755
--- a/lib/ansible/runner.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/runner.py
@@ -117,7 +117,7 @@ class Runner(object):
         try:
             # try paramiko
             ssh.connect(host, username=self.remote_user, allow_agent=True, 
-              look_for_keys=True, password=self.remote_pass)
+              look_for_keys=True, password=self.remote_pass timeout=self.timeout)
             return [ True, ssh ]
         except Exception, e:
             # it failed somehow, return the failure string